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FAO recognizes that crop improvement through innovative technologies, including both conventional breeding and modern biotechnologies, is an essential approach to achieving sustainable increases in crop productivity and thus contributes to food security. Scientific evidence has shown that modern biotechnologies offer potential options to improving such aspects as the yield and quality, resource use efficiency, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and the nutrition value of the crops. FAO is also aware of the public perception and concerns about the potential risks to human health and the environment associated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). FAO underlines the need to carefully evaluate [...]

This manual explains how to use the EX-Ante Carbon-balance Tool for Value Chain (EX-ACT VC) and how to address a multi-impact appraisal in terms of socio-economic and environmental performance of value chains. These guidelines justify the development of the tool, and introduce its goals for value chain analysis and the step-by-step approach of its modules. Specifically, Chapter 1 discusses the importance of incorporating climate change mitigation and resilience into agricultural production systems. Chapter 2 explains the development of the FAO EX-ACT Value Chain tool, along with its logic and methodology, while Chapter 3 provides a concise overview of its structure. Chapters [...]

FAO encourages sustainable crop production intensification farming practices and technologies that support the development of resilient crop production systems. The approach is founded on a set of science based environmental, institutional and social principles.  

Family farming remains the predominant form of agriculture in Asia and the Pacific. There are more than 570 million farms in the world of which over 500 million are family-owned. They are responsible for at least 56 percent of agricultural production. These smallholder resource-poor farmers are confronted by many challenges – the negative impact of climate change, increased frequency of natural disasters, loss of biodiversity, crude oil price hikes, rapid expansion of bioenergy development, incr easing food price volatility, inefficient supply chains and others. The information needs of farmers will only increase as they have to make more and more [...]

In the five years since the Voluntary Guidelines on the responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) was endorsed, the Guidelines have inspired policy and legal reforms in countries, from Gabon to Guatemala, making a real difference to people's lives. Communities, including pastoralists, rural women, fisher folk, rural workers and indigenous peoples are already using the VGGT to claim, secure and restore their legitimate rights to land, forests and fisheries.  FAO, together with relevant stakeholders and partners, and with financial support from the European Union, organized a technical thematic forum from 5 - 6 October 2017 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the [...]

The agricultural sector in Lebanon is faced by a series of challenges made more acute by the effect of the Syrian crisis on the country, especially in rural areas. Farmers have increasingly abandoned their livestock as they are unable to cope with rising feed prices and the declining prices of animals and animal products. It is essential to strengthen the dairy sector to ensure that it continues as a viable source of livelihood and employment, particularly for women. The project enhanced the liv elihood and food security of Lebanese women by providing household dairy production materials, and by improving the [...]

In view of the existing tension and potential conflict between the host community and conflict-affected refugees in Turkana County, Kenya, an improvement in relations was urgently needed. It was noted that support could be given to disadvantaged hosts, linking them to market opportunities offered by the refugee situation, to the benefit of all concerned. The project sought to enable host communities to supply fresh produce (primarily vegetables and animal products) to the camp as part of the fresh food voucher component of the World Food Programme’s General Food Distribution and provide support to ensure that increased income from vouchers was [...]

Despite government efforts to reduce poverty and food insecurity, Ethiopia remains one of the world’s poorest countries, with around 25 million people living in extreme poverty. The country is exposed to a wide range of natural hazards, especially recurrent drought, such as that induced by El Niño in Amhara and Tigray Regions in 2014/15. The aim of the project was to provide emergency assistance in these regions for vulnerable smallholder households affected by the 2014/15 drought, many of whom  had consumed their seed reserves. It would do this by distributing cereal, potato and vegetable seed, and hand tools to assist [...]

This study reviewed the achievements, and also the shortcomings, of 12 watershed management projects technically supported by FAO over the past decade, with a view to learning from experience. Unlike sectoral development approaches, watershed management involves examining the interactions among various natural processes and land uses and managing land, water and the wider ecosystem of the watershed in an integrated way. Watershed management is best carried out as a stepwise multistakeholder process. The review identified a sequence of steps that watershed management projects or programmes should ideally follow. The approach has demonstrated its effectiveness for responding to global challenges of [...]

This paper, now also available in Chinese, explores the intra-industry trade in ethanol between the United States and Brazil, highlighting the lack of policy alignment and suggesting a “book and claim” system to cater to differing national objectives. See here all FAO Agricultural Development Economics Working Papers.