We are the Agricultural Management Group within the FAO Agricultural Management, Marketing and Finance Service. As one of principal clusters of expertise available from the FAO Agricultural Support Systems Division, the Management Group focuses on improving the understanding of different farm-household systems and local agribusiness enterprises by farmers, other entrepreneurs, extension agents, researchers and policy planners.

What we are concerned about..

The Agricultural Management Group is concerned with improvements in the profitability, productivity and efficiency and competitiveness of farms and local agribusiness enterprises, and the promotion of sound decision making related to farm, enterprise and resource management and farming systems development.

The developmental objective of the Group is higher farm income and productivity, contributing to the FAO strategic objective of poverty reduction and improved household food security, corresponding to the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and hunger by 2015.

Our work supports the transition to efficient market-oriented agriculture. Specific attention is given to small farm commercialisation and competitiveness, appropriate farm enterprise specialization or diversification, sustainable and economically viable intensification of production practices, adjustments to urbanization and food supplies to cities, impact of market liberalization and privatization of services on producers and farm-agribusiness linkages. Particular attention is paid to vulnerable groups of farm households, for example those suffering from drought, HIV-AIDS or other emergencies.

The Group pursues its mission and objectives by working collaboratively in interdisciplinary problem-solving projects. Close internal partnership is maintained with other Services in the Agricultural Support Systems Division, as well as with other divisions and services in FAO concerned with farming systems development, farm and community planning, and farm and business-level economic analysis.