FAO: Publications

New publications

Sofa The State of Food and Agriculture 2012
Investing in agriculture is essential for reducing hunger and promoting sustainable agricultural production. Eradicating hunger sustainably will require a significant increase in agricultural investments, but also an improvement in their effectiveness.

As the largest investors in developing country agriculture farmers must be central to any strategy to increase investment in the sector. To invest more they need a favourable investment climate. Governments have a special responsibility to help smallholders invest and to ensure that large-scale investments in agriculture are socially beneficial and environmentally sustainable. Government investment is necessary to create an enabling environment for private investments in agriculture. Governments need to channel scarce public funds towards public goods with high economic and social returns. ...details

Publications are central to FAO's work as a knowledge organization. More than 300 titles per year are published -- usually in multiple language versions -- on topics such as hunger and food security, commodity markets, climate change, nutrition, fisheries, forests, rural livelihoods and much more.

FAO's flagship publications

FAO’s most important publications present comprehensive and objective information and analysis on the current global state of food and agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, forests, agricultural commodity markets and hunger. These titles are issued regularly, to inform public debate and policy-making at national and international levels.

• The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA)
• The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA)
• State of the World's Forests (SOFO)
• The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI)
• The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO)
• The State of the World's Land and Water Resources (SOLAW)

Sofi The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012
The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 presents new estimates of undernourishment based on a revised and improved methodology. The new estimates show that progress in reducing hunger during the past 20 years has been better...details

Sofo The State of the World's Forests 2012
The State of the World's Forests reports on the status of forests, recent major policy and institutional developments and key issues concerning the forest sector. Throughout history, deforestation has accompanied economic development...details

Sofia

The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012
In addition to striving to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the global community is also grappling with other pressing and complex challenges such as the widespread economic crisis and the effects of climate change...details