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This course explains the importance of food composition tables and databases, food description (selection and nomenclature), food components (analysis, calculation, conversion and units), covers the aspects of quality and food biodiversity, as well as compilation principles. The course is designed to be used in universities to help future professionals appreciate food composition data and use them adequately to improve data quality, availability and usage worldwide. 

The aim of the Toolkit is to showcase concrete examples of good practices for food loss and waste reduction, while pointing to information sources, guidelines and pledges favoring food wastage reduction.

Wheat is of paramount importance in Pakistan, with 80 percent of farmers growing it on a total of about 9 million hectares (ha) - close to 40 percent of the country’s total cultivated land. The crop is grown by predominantly small (0.5 to 5.0 ha) and medium-sized (5 to 10 ha) farmers, whose livelihoods depend on it. Wheat yields in Pakistan remain low, lagging behind those in other countries with comparable agroclimatic conditions. The agro-ecological potential for irrigated wheat in Punjab, Pakistan’s primary production area, suggests that yields of about 6 tonnes/ha could be attained, compared with current yields of 2.5 to 3 tonnes/ha. Assuming that this potential [...]

This book is about Indigenous Peoples’ food systems and how important local knowledge about foods and the ecosystems that provide them can be used to improve health and well-being. The authors describe processes and activities in nine cultures of Indigenous Peoples, where interventions were developed and implemented with local knowledge, and explain how this information can benefit Indigenous Peoples everywhere, and all of humankind. Food and nutrition insecurity and the burden of high incidence of non-communicable diseases reach all corners of the globe. This “nutrition transition” is driven by changing lifestyles, loss of livelihoods for all those engaged in food production, increasing poverty and urbanization, and [...]

Malnutrition in all its forms - undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity - imposes unacceptably high economic and social costs on countries at all income levels. "The State of Food and Agriculture 2013: Food systems for better nutrition" argues that improving nutrition and reducing these costs must begin with food and agriculture. The traditional role of agriculture in producing food and generating income is fundamental, but agriculture and the entire food system - from inputs and production, through processing, storage, transport and retailing, to consumption - can contribute much more to the eradication of malnutrition.

These guidelines provide users with the key notions required to carry out analyses of policy impacts by means of a value chain approach and show how to do it in a practical way by making use of relevant tools. In particular, the reader will find this material useful to: Identify the basic units operating in a given value chain (=agents) and the activities they undertake; Quantify the gross revenues, value added creation and profits of every agent; Build different scenarios and measure changes in revenues, value added creation and profits for the different scenarios; Build a Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) and compute protection and [...]

The Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) addresses prevention and early warning across the entire food chain. It promotes the effective containment and management of the most serious epidemic pests and diseases and food safety threats through international cooperation involving early detection, early warning, preparedness and timely reaction, coordination and communication, and capacity development.

This paper reviews experiences on food export restrictions during 2007-10 and related studies and makes some proposals for disciplining export restrictions through the ongoing Doha Round negotiations. To start with, there is a strategic choice to be made. One option is to limit the disciplining to improving the requirements for notifications, information provision and consultations, along the line of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture Article 12. This is the choice that has been made by negotiators, as reflected in the draft Doha texts of December 2008. In the mean time, the 2007-10 food crisis and price spikes have prompted [...]

This paper reviews experiences on food export restrictions during 2007-10 and related studies and makes some proposals for disciplining export restrictions through the ongoing Doha Round negotiations. To start with, there is a strategic choice to be made. One option is to limit the disciplining to improving the requirements for notifications, information provision and consultations, along the line of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture Article 12. This is the choice that has been made by negotiators, as reflected in the draft Doha texts of December 2008. In the mean time, the 2007-10 food crisis and price spikes have prompted [...]

This paper reviews experiences on food export restrictions during 2007-10 and related studies and makes some proposals for disciplining export restrictions through the ongoing Doha Round negotiations. To start with, there is a strategic choice to be made. One option is to limit the disciplining to improving the requirements for notifications, information provision and consultations, along the line of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture Article 12. This is the choice that has been made by negotiators, as reflected in the draft Doha texts of December 2008. In the mean time, the 2007-10 food crisis and price spikes have prompted [...]