Our work on sustainable agriculture provides analysis and policy insights on how natural resource management can result in enhanced food security, poverty alleviation, and sustainable development. Research and field work seek to improve knowledge and understanding of how best to integrate sustainable natural resources and environmental management into the development and poverty reduction processes.

Project activities include:

- incorporating poverty reduction concerns into global environmental agreements
- identifying conflicts and complementarities between biodiversity conservation and development
- overcoming barriers to sustainable resource use by the rural poor.

Economics & Policy Innovations for Climate-Smart Agriculture
EPIC works with national and local partners in developing countries, providing economic  and policy analysis to support the transition to climate smart agriculture (CSA).

Payments for Environmental Services from Agricultural Landscapes (PESAL)
This website aims to disseminate information on the potential of agriculture to improve the provision of environmental services though Payments for Environmental Services (PES) programmes, as incentives for improved land management.

Seeds, Diversity and Development
This programme consists of applied economics research on how seed systems affect the decisions farmers make about which crops and varieties to plant – in other words the on-farm utilization of crop genetic resources.

Related resources

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was called for by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000. Initiated in 2001, the objective of the MA was to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contribution to human well-being.

Linking smallholders potato farmers to the market while caring for the environment
The effects of increased commercialization on the environment and on the welfare of small potato farmers were analysed in an on-going research project implemented by FAO-ESA in two Andean countries, namely Ecuador and Bolivia. The research project focused on both the input and output sides of the market for potatoes.

Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool
The ex-ante carbon-balance tool (EX-ACT) aims to provide estimations of the impact of agriculture and forestry development projects on green house gas emissions and carbon sequestration, indicating its effects on the carbon balance.