Agrifood systems are central to food security and nutrition, economic growth, environmental sustainability and rural development. Yet, their immense potential and contribution are jeopardized by current major global challenges: economic slowdowns and downturns, rising inequalities, weather extreme events, depleted natural resources and stagnating agricultural productivity. Making these systems more efficient, sustainable and resilient requires aligning private incentives with societal goals, while managing both current and future scarcity of natural, economic and fiscal resources. Economics exist to address these two essential questions and provide the tools to inform public policies. FAO supports countries navigating interconnected economic, social and environmental pressures by providing the evidence, analysis and policy expertise needed to inform decisions and drive positive change through effective policies and strategic investments.
Hosted at the Agrifood Economics and Policy Division (ESA) – a global centre of excellence in agrifood economic analysis – this programme of work combines state-of-the-art economic modelling, advanced econometrics, foresight and innovative approaches from macroeconomics, microeconomics, agricultural, behavioural and experimental economics. We generate evidence to anticipate risks, evaluate trade-offs, and identify opportunities in the short and long term. Our work spans the macro level of national and global economies, the meso level of sectors, markets and value chains, and the micro level of households, firms and individuals. This multi-layer approach allows us to design policies and investments that strengthen resilience, accelerate sustainable transformation, and enable countries to address challenges such as climate change, market volatility and resource constraints, while unlocking opportunities – particularly the bioeconomy.
By turning evidence into policy action, FAO supports Members in addressing today's challenges and preparing for tomorrow's opportunities, helping to achieve better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all.
Find out more about the five main areas of work below.
- Food security and nutrition, and resilience. This area supports countries and partners in generating and applying evidence to strengthen food and nutrition security and build resilience. It brings together monitoring and analytical functions to ensure that reliable data and sound assessments lead to informed decisions, timely policy actions and investments for short-term responses and long-term impact. A key contribution is the annual flagship report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World.
- Strategic foresight and bioeconomy transformation. Through strategic foresight, economic analysis and scenario modelling, we help governments and stakeholders navigate long-term uncertainty and shape sustainable agrifood futures. Our work highlights the bioeconomy as a key driver of 21st-century structural transformation, supporting the transition away from fossil-based economies through the sustainable production, use and governance of biomass resources across food, energy and industrial systems.
- Policy reform, intelligence, analysis, monitoring and evaluation. It delivers evidence-based policy insights across the full policy cycle, enabling governments to design, implement and evaluate coherent and scalable policy solutions, giving corporate initiatives the analytical backbone they need for lasting, measurable impact.
- Investments for sustainable markets, agribusiness and rural transformation. It links economic analysis across agrifood systems to inform investments that enhance socioeconomic inclusion, resilience, sustainability and competitiveness across value chains, and helps member countries attract and direct resources where they matter most.
- Knowledge and innovation for research in agrifood economics. It advances state-of-the-art analytics and cutting-edge tools, including Artificial Intelligence and Earth Observation, to generate robust evidence that underpins credible country programming, corporate priorities and high-quality technical support to Member countries. One key contribution is the annual flagship report The State of Food and Agriculture.
