Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Rural development

Reports and briefs

The future of food and agriculture: Trends and challenges

What will be needed to realize the vision of a world free from hunger and malnutrition? After shedding light on the nature of the challenges that agriculture and food systems are facing now and throughout the 21st century, the study provides insights into what is at stake and what needs to be done....

Available in:
Reports and briefs

Food consumption, urbanisation and rural transformations in Southeast Asia

By 2050, nearly 63 per cent of the total population of Southeast Asia is expected to live in urban areas. Not only is urbanisation profoundly changing urban-rural relations, it is also shifting patterns of food consumption. Governments in the region are modernising food systems, in part to meet the...

Available in:
Reports and briefs

Urbanisation, changing tastes and rural transformation in West Africa

Between 1950 and 2000, the total population of West Africa increased fourfold, with almost one third now living in urban centres. Alongside growing urbanisation, many countries in the region increasingly rely on food imports for certain staples. These imports mix with local and regional foods to...

Available in:
Reports and briefs

Food consumption, urbanisation and rural transformation: the trade dimensions

Growing urban demand for food – which now constitutes about 60–70 per cent of food consumption in Asia and more than half in Africa – is met largely by trade. This paper reviews evidence for what this trade means for rural areas, and for successful rural economic transformation. It also reviews...

Available in:
Reports and briefs

Food systems at the rural-urban interface

Promoting better market access and market performance for smallholder agricultural producers and the provision of access to better quality and lower price food for the majority of the world’s population requires the strengthening of rural-urban linkages and putting ‘place-based development’ at the...

Available in:
Reports and briefs

Why food remittances matter: rural-urban linkages and food security in Africa

The transfer of funds by migrants to their home countries (cash remittances) is at an all-time high. By 2017, it is predicted to rise to US$500 billion – and there is a growing policy consensus that cash remittances can be mainstreamed into development. Equally, food remitting also has a role to...

Available in: