The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is thrilled to announce that the sustainable markets, agribusiness, and rural transformations (SMART) webpage is now officially live and accessible through FAO's Agrifood Economics website.

Agrifood economics serves as the bedrock of SMART’s work, which is dedicated to enhancing agrifood systems, increasing food security, and fostering evidence-based decision-making in regions where poverty and hunger are most acute. This includes areas with limited national capacities or facing operational challenges due to man-made crises or high exposure to natural hazards.

The SMART team's core focus lies in conducting rigorous economic analyses of the various actors within agrifood systems. They meticulously examine the intricate interplay of factors such as market dynamics, pricing mechanisms, government policies, digital innovations, stakeholder vulnerability and capacity, and environmental considerations. These analyses shed light on processes related to inclusion, resilience, sustainability, and transformation within agrifood value chains.

The newly launched webpage has been meticulously designed to offer visitors an immersive experience into SMART's work. Here's a glimpse of what the SMART webpage has to offer:

• A complete overview of SMART's core objectives, activities and overarching goals.
• Access to the latest publications, resources and announcements of upcoming events.
• A curated selection of related links and associated initiatives such as FAO’s emblematic Hand-in-Hand Initiative and the Technical Network on Poverty Analysis (Think-PA).
• A deep dive into the work on sustainable agribusiness and agrifood value chain development, which includes value chain analysis and youth, public-private partnerships for agribusiness development, contract farming, digital innovations, and supporting bioeconomy projects, among others.
• An insight into the process of generating evidence-based decision-making for targeted investments and policies; covering food security development in small countries and Small Islands Developing States, investments for inclusive and sustainable agriculture, policy analysis on agrifood price variability, and capacity development to governments.
• An in-depth look at the activities aimed at including vulnerable populations in agrifood systems transformation, which encompasses poverty analysis and household income, farm typologies and analytical support to the United Nations Decade of Family Farming (UNDFF), survey design and best practice on data collection, impact evaluations of agricultural and environmental interventions, and more.

Discover how SMART plays a pivotal role in the identification and formulation of policies and interventions aimed at advancing sustainable agriculture and agrifood systems while concurrently enhancing income and employment prospects. Collaborating closely with governmental bodies and diverse stakeholders, SMART conducts comprehensive analyses of agrifood value chains, evaluates the ramifications of public policies, and offers analytical support for capacity development and policy enhancements.

At the heart of SMART's endeavors lies a common objective: to bolster the competitiveness of all stakeholders within the value chains, amplify commercialization efforts, elevate living standards, stimulate employment generation, and catalyze the transformation of agrifood systems toward sustainability.