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The study provides an overview of West Africa’s livestock/meat and dairy value chains. It addresses the current status of the value chains, makes an inventory of the strengths and constraints of the value chains, as well as policies that could affect them. It also identifies gaps and prescribes solutions. A programme is proposed for investment in the value chains.

La presente publicación fue elaborada por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO), por encargo de la Dirección de Integración Regional Multilateral (DIREM) del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile, punto focal de la CELAC en el país, y con el apoyo de las instituciones públicas que forman parte del Comité Nacional del Plan SAN CELAC: Capítulo Chile. El fin de esta publicación fue contribuir a la implementación del Plan SAN CELAC: Capítulo Chile, a través de la recopilación y sistematización de las principales dimensiones nutricionales y de seguridad alimentaria, instituciones e iniciativas públicas [...]

Regionally across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), aquaculture is a rapidly growing industry with its practices and operations increasingly more commercialized across the continent. An estimated six-fold production increase, from 55,690 tonnes in 2000 to 359,790 tonnes in 2010 was recorded. This trend is expected to increase as the continent’s aquaculture operations develops and industrializes. This inevitable production increase and consequent intensification will predominantly be based on fossil fuels. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the FAO have entered an agreement to improve the implementation and management of existing critical climate change gaps. The series of projects aims to improve global [...]

The report assesses the occurrence and impacts of drought, the current policies underlying drought management as well as the mitigation measures and responses adopted in Central Asia and Turkey, with a focus on Agriculture Sector. It is part of a series of similar studies carried out in different regions and countries of the world, with the objective of shedding light on drought effects, sensitizing policy-makers for the much needed paradigm shift to pro-active drought management planning and providing guidance for the development of such policies. The studies are carried out by FAO, in collaboration with the Water for Food Institute, [...]

The food production and supply chain consumes about 30 percent of total end-use energy globally, and contributes to over 20 percent of total annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (excluding emissions or sinks from land use change). A growing worldwide population, changing diets and growing economic development will all serve to increase competition for land, water and energy resources – which already face problems of environmental degradation and, in some cases, scarcity. To address these challenges, agrifood systems at every scale, from the small family farm to the vertically integrated corporate farm level, will have to become more efficient by using [...]

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ethiopian Ministry for Livestock and Fishery to hold the first Africa Sustainable Livestock 2050 (ASL2050) Technical Consultation on the 21st and 23rd of February 2017 and the ASL2050 Regional Launch on the 23rd February 2017. Representatives from Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, as well as numerous partner organisations, attended the technical meeting to discuss the future impacts of livestock sector growth on Africa’s environment, public health and livelihoods. In the next 30–40 years, growing demand [...]

Territorial approaches to foster agro-industrial investment at local, country and regional levels are becoming increasingly relevant as policy-makers acknowledge the influence of place-specific factors – the endowment of natural and other productive resources together with social, institutional and knowledge capital. As a consequence, a number of instruments to attract agro-industrial investments into specific locations are becoming mainstream, namely agrobased corridors, clusters and special economic zones, as well as agro-industrial parks and incubators. This sourcebook appraises these instruments and considers their nature and objectives, their potential benefits and challenges and the approaches used to implement them. It also examines the practices that have led to both successful and unsuccessful outcomes. The [...]

This technical report reviews issues related to fertilizers access in Tanzania and identify policy options that would enable smallholder farmers to continue to access fertilizer at reasonable prices, also in the absence of subsidies. Where possible, the options have been assessed against their potential impact on input cost reduction; the implications for the government budget, mostly in qualitative terms; and the time and coordination required for their implementation. The report recommends to consider a balanced package of options to address the aspects currently undermining the effectiveness and efficiency of the fertilizer sector with a view to increase access to and [...]

For smallholder agriculture to prosper and transform itself, access to rural services is essential. Rural services that enable smallholders to overcome constraints to increase their productivity, manage their farms as a sustainable business, link to inputs and outputs markets and act collectively to improve their livelihoods are a first line of action to reduce rural poverty. Undoubtedly, improving rural services has long been on the development agenda. Yet, ensuring equitable access to rural services remains a challenge that governments and their development partners need to address to improve rural livelihoods and overcome rural poverty. The pluralistic Market-Oriented Services (MOS) programme [...]

The International Organisations Consortium for Measuring the Policy Environment for Agriculture aims to create a community of practice, to provide a harmonized and consolidated database, and to provide a forum for discussion aimed at raising the quality and coverage of the available measures. The goals of the consortium include maintaining the autonomy and ensuring the consistency of each International Organization’s (IO) role with its mandate, creating a collaborative approach for database, with a clear recognition of Intellectual Property Rights.