FAO Headquarters (Rome) - The 26th Session of the Committee on Agriculture (COAG) was held in FAO Headquarters during the 1st -5th of October 2018 and it focused on Innovations for sustainable food and agriculture.

The Committee discussed achieving sustainable rural development through agricultural innovation and acknowledged the outcomes of the International Symposium and regional meetings on agroecology.

FAO’s Regional Conferences, the highest governing bodies of the Organization at regional level and celebrated throughout the first semester of 2018, provided specific guidance to support agroecology as one of the approaches to promote sustainable agriculture and food systems, particularly for smallholders and family farmers, in response to regional challenges.

FAO presented the Agroecology: from advocacy to action paper. The document included an overview of FAO’s work on agroecology to strengthen sustainable food and agricultural systems and achieve Zero Hunger and the outcomes of regional seminars and the 2nd International Symposium on Agroecology that launched the Scaling up Agroecology Initiative and the 10 elements guiding FAO’s vision on agroecology.

The Committee on Agriculture is one of FAO’s Governing Bodies, providing overall policy and regulatory guidance on issues relating to agriculture, livestock, food safety, nutrition, rural development and natural resource management.

For further information on the 26th Session of the COAG, please visit the website.

The Agroecology: from advocacy to action paper is available here.

More information on FAO’s work on agroecology can be found in the following publications:

• FAO’s work on agroecology. A pathway to achieving the SDGs (Download)
• The 10 elements of agroecology. Guiding the transition to sustainable food and agricultural systems (Download)
• Catalysing dialogue and cooperation to scale up agroecology. Outcomes of the FAO regional seminars on agroecology (Download)