Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies

Read more and see photos here from visits to tea fields and factories in Rwanda. 
Explore the enhanced Policy Optimization Tool (PolOpT): Smarter spending for food and agriculture...and for a Better Environment. Read more in the new, second edition brochure.

At the Collaborative Partnership on Forests event, FAO highlights how optimizing government spending on food and agriculture can also support land restoration efforts and sustainable land management across Southern Africa.

High-level meetings introduce FAO’s Policy Optimization Tool (PolOpT) in Maputo.

Key stakeholders meet to define and agree on approaches to boost production, quality, processing, and export of Rwandan tea. Read more about it.

The MAFAP programme's latest review of federal public spending on food and agriculture and on price incentives for commodities is now online following a policy dialogue on the report's findings in Abuja. Find out more!
Une nouvelle étude vise à prioriser les produits agricoles selon leur potentiel à diversifier et accroître les exportations du Burkina Faso. 
Updates include new data on key commodities for Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal, as well as new data on public expenditure on food and agriculture in Malawi and Rwanda up to 2023.
Policymakers and experts gather in Dhaka to track public expenditure and investments in food and agriculture and understand pathways to optimize them for agricultural transformation
Labour productivity in the agricultural sector faces a number of binding constraints including land access, uncertain markets, volatile prices, inadequate farmer training, limited infrastructure, and technology uptake.

The Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme, within the Agrifood Economics and Policy Division at FAO, is a leading policy support initiative that has been working since 2009 with mainly African countries to strategically prioritize, reform and implement agrifood policies for inclusive agricultural transformation. 

MAFAP does this by supporting governments with agrifood policy monitoring on public expenditure on food and agriculture and price incentives for key country commodities, with policy prioritization to optimise their public budgets and prioritize their investments in commodities, and with agrifood policy reforms to address issues on food and nutrition, pricing, marketing, strategy development and trade. 

Countries where MAFAP is providing support
Videos
Nigeria Policy-Monitoring Review launch
13/08/2025

Watch the high-level launch of the Nigeria Food and Agriculture Policy Monitoring Review in Abuja with the Minster of Agriculture and Food Security,...

Nineteen officials meet to sharpen skills at policy monitoring and data validation workshop in Burkina Faso
26/02/2025

Le Faso covers MAFAP's policy monitoring upskilling workshop in Burkina Faso

All about agrifood reform in 1 minute with Thibault Meilland
06/05/2024

Find out from Policy Advisor Thibault Meilland how the MAFAP Programme is supporting countries through a 4-step process to repurpose and reform their...

All about agrifood policy prioritization in 1 minute with Marco V. Sánchez
06/05/2024

Find out in this 1-minute video with Agrifood Economics and Policy Deputy Director Marco V. Sánchez how the MAFAP Programme is partnering with countries...

All about agrifood policy monitoring in 1 minute with Valentina Pernechele
06/05/2024

Find out in 1 minute from Economist Valentina Pernechele how the MAFAP Programme is helping countries through policy monitoring and data analysis on...

News
12/11/2025
Mission builds momentum in Kigali with key ministries and amplifies regional awareness of PolOpT at the Africa Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ANAPRI) 2025 Stakeholder's Conference.
07/11/2025
The MAFAP team in Maputo presented its proposal for a price-setting mechanism, highlighting the need for stronger policy coherence, transparent pricing, and fair margin distribution across Mozambique’s cashew value chain.
Publications
Boosting agrifood trade competitiveness – How an Agrifood Competitiveness and Trade (ACT) analysis can support countries in unlocking the potential of agrifood imports and exports
28/11/2025

The brochure presents the Agrifood Competitiveness and Trade (ACT) analysis as a tool for countries to pinpoint agrifood products with high potential...

Invertir de forma más inteligente en la alimentación y la agricultura – Aumentando la eficiencia del gasto público para lograr un triple beneficio con la Herramienta de optimización de políticas (PolOpT) de la FAO (Segunda edición)
27/10/2025

La Herramienta de optimización de políticas (PolOpT) de la FAO permite a los gobiernos reasignar sus presupuestos públicos destinados a la alimentación...

Spending smarter on food and agriculture – Making public spending more effective with FAO's Policy Optimization Tool (PolOpT). Second Edition, 2025
17/10/2025

This is the new, second edition brochure on FAO's Policy Optimization Tool (PolOpT) updated in 2025.

E-Learnings
Monitoring public expenditure on food and agriculture: the MAFAP method
02/11/2021

Learn how public spending on food and agriculture is a critical to better understand agricultural public expenditure and how it affects agricultural...

Monitoring price incentives for food and agriculture: the MAFAP method
02/11/2021

Learn how policies influence prices at different stages of the value chain, such as at producer, wholesale and retail level, is fundamental to determine...

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'Gates Foundation' is a registered trademark of the Gates Foundation in the United States and is used with permission.

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Contact

Marco V. Sánchez

Deputy Director

Agrifood Economics and Policy Division & Officer-in-Charge of the MAFAP programme

[email protected]