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Publications
Divide in the fields – A study of global agricultural land inequality
10/2026
This study introduces the Global Database of Land Distribution and Inequality (LINEQ), which integrates agricultural census, survey data, and Earth Observation-based proxies for land quality to provide a more nuanced and cross-country comparable measurement of land inequality.
An operational definition of resilient agrifood systems in the face of multiple risks
08/2026
This paper supports FAO’s Programme Priority Area Better Life 4 by proposing a practical framework for defining and measuring resilience in agrifood systems. Drawing on a literature review and a participatory stocktaking exercise across FAO divisions, technical units and decentralized offices, the study examines how resilience is currently understood and operationalized within the organization.
Understanding the post-COVID-19 pandemic surge in food price inflation
05/2026
While overall inflation surged in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, food consumer prices rose disproportionately in the United States of America and the euro area, suggesting food-specific inflationary forces.
Commodity export dependence, external shocks and agrifood systems – An analysis of the transmission channels of commodity terms of trade shocks
02/2026
Cross-country interdependencies, highlighted in FAO’s report "The future of food and agriculture – Drivers and triggers for transformation" and reflected in recent regional foresight exercises, provide the backdrop for this study. The paper analyses how commodity terms of trade shocks affected macroeconomic and financial stability in commodity-dependent low- and lower-middle-income countries (1988–2022) and discusses the policy options and constraints in responding to such shocks.
Enhanced metrics for tracking food security and nutrition resilience in Afghanistan – A pilot study
01/2026
This paper pilots the integration of two indicators of individual-level dietary diversity, Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) and for Children (MDD-C), into a resilience capacity framework, using unique household survey data collected in 2024 from eight provinces in Afghanistan.
A global analysis of policy patterns across divergent food security trajectories under food price inflation
12/2025
Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025. This paper analyzes food security outcomes under food price inflation across 154 countries from 2015–2023, examining how different policy landscapes shape heterogeneous responses. Using group-based trajectory modeling, we identify distinct patterns in the co-evolution of food price inflation and food insecurity across four baseline food security groups.
Price dynamics for foods of varied nutritional characteristics
12/2025
Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025. This paper analyses global retail food consumer prices to uncover structural factors shaping the cost and affordability of healthy diets. Using data from 2011, 2017, and 2021, the study finds that prices vary systematically by food group, level of processing, and nutritional composition, and these patterns persist across the three years of analysis of global data.
Breaking down wage inequalities – A youth and gender perspective in agrifood systems using decomposition
12/2025
The modernization of agrifood systems (AFS) is transforming labour markets and generating new employment opportunities. However, are these emerging opportunities enabling youth to take up more waged employment – often associated with higher incomes and social benefits? And are these opportunities being equitably distributed between men and women?
Farmers’ willingness to pay for a digital extension tool in Sri Lanka – An economic application of list experiments
11/2025
List experiments utilize indirect survey questions to reduce social desirability bias in measures of sensitive behaviours and sentiments. While often used to assess retrospective behaviour or opinions of respondents, list experiments have not been widely applied to assessing “deep” parameters of economic models, such as willingness to pay.
Revealing complementarities across farm scales in global food production
11/2025
Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2025. Understanding how much food is produced by farms of different sizes is central to shaping inclusive, sustainable and resilient agrifood systems. While smallholders are widely recognized as critical for local food security, especially in low- and middle-income countries, global estimates of their contribution to global food production remain uncertain due to data limitations and methodological challenges.
A global update on the number of farms, farm size and farmland distribution
11/2025
Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2025. Over the last decade, increasing efforts have been made to estimate the number of farms and the global distribution of farmland, providing context for the ongoing discourse on the future of farms, farm sizes, food security and poverty.
Policies that improved land conditions
11/2025
Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2025. Research on land-related agri-environmental policies and their impact on agriculture and the environment usually focuses on individual policies in specific national and regional contexts. This study fills this gap by providing a global perspective on the effectiveness of various agri-environmental policies and their growth over time.
A global yield gap assessment to link land degradation to socioeconomic risks
11/2025
Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2025. There is growing empirical evidence that land degradation (e.g. loss of soil organic carbon, soil drying, increased soil erosion) is associated with increased crop yield gaps. Here, we examine how much this happens where socio-economically vulnerable populations are located and how much crop yield is lost overall.
Land, livelihoods and poverty – Exploring income diversification among agricultural households in developing economies
11/2025
Smallholder farmers remain central to rural economies across developing countries, yet small landholdings and limited non-farm opportunities constrain their ability to achieve a living income. Using harmonized household survey data from 37 countries and panel data from Ethiopia, Nigeria, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda, this paper examines the link between farm size, livelihood strategies, and income.
Eliciting farmers’ preferences for high-value crops in Bhutan – A discrete choice experiment
08/2025
In Bhutan, transitioning from staple cultivation to high-value crops (HVCs) is high on the government's agenda to enhance agricultural profitability and attract young farmers, especially given the aging rural population. This transition is crucial for addressing Bhutan’s interconnected challenges, including climate change, limited arable land, and rural–urban migration.
A standardized global approach to assess crop productivity using Earth Observations Big Data – Development of a global Crop Potential Productivity Index using Earth Observation Big Data and FAO’s Crop Ecological Requirements Database
06/2025
This working paper introduces the Crop Potential Productivity Index (CropPI), a global index that integrates Earth Observation Big Data with FAO’s Crop Requirements Database to assess the potential productivity of key staple crops (maize, wheat, and rice).
Reorientation, innovation and the global architecture for financing for food security and nutrition
04/2025
Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024. Hunger and food insecurity reduction has stagnated in the years after the pandemic, putting the world far off course to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 2.1. In addition, while some progress has been observed in reducing malnutrition, it is currently not enough to meet SDG Target 2.2 by 2030.
Can’t hold me down? Farming households’ access to productive assets and inputs – A cross-country approach
03/2025
This study provides country-level estimates of productive inputs and assets utilized by farming households, including land, fertilizers, agrochemicals, water management technologies, improved seeds, and mechanization in 19 countries across the world covering the period 2014–2020, using the latest nationally representative survey.
Measuring agricultural land inequality – Conceptual and methodological issues
03/2025
Measures of agricultural land inequality have primarily relied on the distribution of farm size, using information from agricultural census data. In this paper, we use an expanded approach, recognizing the complexity and the multiple dimensions that involve the concept of land inequality.
Living income measurement methods – A comparative study and application to cocoa farmers in Cameroon
03/2025
How should the cost of a decent life be quantified, and are living income indicators valid welfare measures for agrifood policies? This paper critically examines two methodologies for estimating living income benchmarks and their application in rural agricultural contexts, focusing on cocoa producers in Cameroon.