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Integrating social and gender analysis into natural resource management research / Ronnie Vernooy and Liz Fajber -- The social and gendered nature of ginger production and commercialization: a case study of the Rai, Lepcha and Brahmin-Chhetri in Sikkim and Kalimpong, West Bengal, India / Chanda Gurung and Nawraj Gurung -- Strengthening market linkages for women vegetable vendors: experiences from Kohima, Nagaland, India / Vengota Nakro and Chozhule Kikhi -- Enhancing farmers' marketing capacity and strengthening the local seed system: action research for the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity in Bara District, Nepal / Deepa Singh, Anil Subedi and Pitamber Shrestha -- Empowering women farmers and strengthening the local seed system: action research in Guangxi, China / Yiching Song and Linxiu Zhang with Ronnie Vernooy -- Creating opportunities for change: strengthening the social capital of women and the poor in Upland Communities in Hue, Viet Nam / Hoang Thi Sen and Le Van An -- Herder women speak out: towards more equitable co-management of grasslands and other natural resources in Mongolia / H. Ykhanbai, Ts. Odgerel, E. Bulgan and B. Naranchimeg -- Similarities and differences: from improved understanding to social transformations / Ronnie Vernooy and Linxiu Zhang -- Social and gender analysis is essential, not optional: enhanced capacities and remaining challenges / Ronnie Vernooy and Linxiu Zhang.

The governments of Cambodia and Lao PDR have made strong commitments through the Climate Change Initiative of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to integrate mitigation of and adaptation to climate change into their national and sectoral development policies and action plans. Vietnam has also started to address climate-change adaptation at the national and sub-national levels. Governments in the three countries have identified a series of agriculture-based interventions as priorities to strengthen the resilience of smallholder farmers, most notable of which is crop diversification. However, how to practically implement effective policy measures that are of particular benefit to smallholder farmers remains a challenge. Research could contribute to developing a number of pilot initiatives at a sub-national scale to test and assess promising measures. If proven effective, these could then be scaled up under national agricultural policies and the national adaptation programmes of action for climate change (NAPAs). Vietnam does not have a NAPA, but chapter 2 offers a brief analysis of the NAPAs of Cambodia and Lao PDR in terms of the attention paid to crop diversification. It is based on a larger study about NAPAs and aims to explore the extent to which the NAPAs developed by Cambodia and Lao PDR include activities that, directly or indirectly, propose to utilize higher levels of biological diversity in production systems, agricultural research and development. The original study is entitled "Increased biodiversity in agricultural systems and the status of genetic resources for food and agriculture in the 'National Adaptation Programmes of Action' (NAPAs)." It will be published in 2015 by Bioversity International. Bioversity International is working with national partners in the three countries to identify key elements needed to effectively implement policy measures for crop diversification targeted at farmers (both women and men) and ethnic minorities in low and upland regions. In 2014, this resulted in the elaboration of three country desk reviews of past and ongoing crop diversification projects and an international workshop on crop diversification in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. This book presents the results of both the desk reviews and the workshop.

Since 2011, the CGIAR program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has supported research in different parts of the world on how climate-smart technologies, practices and information can address the challenge of transitioning to climatesmart agriculture at a large scale under the new realities of climate change. The working paper critically examines how CCAFS researchers have conceptualized and practiced the scaling of climate-smart agriculture interventions. The review of CCAFS research is complemented by a discussion of some of the recent social science literature on scaling and closely related topics, such as (diffusion of) innovation and institutionalization. Although more recently the conceptual, methodological and practical challenges related to scaling of climate-smart agriculture have received more attention, there remains a need for the development of a more coherent theory of scaling informed by insights from sociology, political sciences and gender studies.

Elinor Ostrom's work has been the principal inspiration for a number of research and development initiatives in Mongolia aimed at designing, testing and assessing viable forms of natural resources co-management that build on traditional nomadic practices. One such initiative, begun in 1999, introduced co-management in four different ecosystems of the country. It was based on the hypothesis that under Mongolian state ownership of pastureland and private ownership of livestock, a co-management system with clear roles and responsibilities among herders, their communities and local governments could offer a means to reduce the pasture degradation and overgrazing that had been increasing in intensity over recent decades. Based on the results and lessons learned from fifteen years of participatory action research, the efforts at these four sites demonstrate that if all stakeholders strongly support co-management it can be a tool to overcome the "tragedy of the commons" For this to happen, appropriate policies and legal support is needed to enable local- and multi-level collaboration. Introducing sustainable management methods such as pasture improvements, combined with new livelihood options, including the production and marketing of local products, can reduce the degradation of pastures, contribute to better livelihoods and recover the cost of environmental externalities.

Access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources is a crucial but very complex, political and legalistic matter. Does the formal system work for family farmers? It poses many challenges. At the same time, farmers around the world are leading successful initiatives for access and benefit sharing. This issue of Farming Matters presents cases that demonstrate the limited extent to which family farmers have been able to benefit from the 'formal' ABS process. It also uncovers some of the effective principles and mechanisms for access and benefit sharing that are part and parcel of farmers' everyday practices, such as community seed banks, and successful collaborations between researchers and farmers. Some of these arrangements have links with the formal system.

In Nepal, community seed banks have a long and rich history. Supported in particular by a number of non-government organizations and more recently, also by government agencies, they can be found across the country from the lowland terai to the high hill areas and from east to west. The latest count puts the number of active community seed banks at 115. These proceedings present the contributions of community seed banks to the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity. The various contributions discuss conceptual, practical and policy issues concerning the establishment and management of community seed banks. Lessons learned from the experiences in Nepal will be useful for community seed banks globally.