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Agricultural industry development provides employment opportunities in off-farm activities such as handling, processing, packaging, transportation and marketing of non-food agricultural products. In addition, these activities add value to and increase demand for farm outputs, thereby contributing to poverty reduction and food security in rural areas.
The diversity of biomass resources in developing countries provides an immense potential for the development of agricultural industries. FAO assists member countries in the development of appropriate policies, strategies and methodologies for the non-food agricultural industries sector. Activities focus on adding value to and improving the quality of products thus stimulating economic growth. The work covers renewable energy systems, industries based on raw materials produced by beneficial insects, industries based on plant and animal fibres, as well as industries for the processing and utilization of agricultural residues, by-products and wastes.
Training courses, roundtable meetings and workshops are conducted to facilitate agricultural industries development while supporting materials in the form of technical bulletins, training manuals and other publications are prepared by the Service for information dissemination.
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