Special programme for food security

The SPFS began operations in 1994 following the Director-General's review of FAO priorities, programmes and strategies. This review concluded that there was an urgent need to focus on the following:

     improving food security
     increasing food production
     improving stability of supplies
     generating rural employment

The main objective of the SPFS is to help Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) improve national and household food security in an economically and environmentally sustainable way. It advocates a participatory approach through demonstrating better ways of increasing production and identifying and resolving the range of constraints which are technical and institutional.

It draws on Agenda 21, which was unanimously adopted at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro. This states that the major thrust of food security "is to bring about a significant increase in agricultural production in a sustainable way and to achieve a substantial improvement in people's entitlement to adequate food and culturally appropriate food supplies."

The SPFS was introduced to Afghanistan in 2003, with projects in horticulture, seed multiplication, livestock production and water management.