Industrial farming practices are leaving harmful marks on India’s agricultural resources. 30% of the soils are degraded, groundwater is depleting fast, and biodiversity – specifically critical soil microbes, insects and birds – continues to disappear. Furthermore, these practices contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, rendering Indian food systems ever more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The resulting losses in production have pushed marginalised communities – in particular small farmers, women, and Indigenous...

Back in 2024, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) already highlighted – in the Global Land Outlook – that “current global food systems are among the main sources of land degradation. Globally, they are responsible for 80% of deforestation, 70% of freshwater use, and are the largest cause of terrestrial...

This handbook offers practical guidance to strengthen collaboration between labour and agrifood actors to prevent and eliminate child labour in agriculture. It addresses a key implementation gap by positioning child labour in agriculture as both a labour and rural development issue and promoting coordinated, cross-sectoral action on its structural causes....

Set in the vibrant fictional village of Kianda, this engaging radio drama follows Ismael, Leila, Faizal, and Mariamo as they navigate the everyday realities of smallholder farming in Mozambique. Through humour, relatable challenges, and practical lessons, the series explores climate-smart agriculture, soil conservation, natural fertilizers, crop rotation, pest management, and...

Eswatini is expanding its climate adaptation efforts in agriculture by introducing protected cultivation infrastructure and climate-smart technologies aimed at increasing food system resilience. The initiative, implemented with technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), was featured during the Coordination Unit for Plant Production and...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an essential indicator of soil fertility, health, and carbon sequestration capacity. Its proper management improves soil structure, productivity, and resilience to climate change, making rapid and reliable SOC assessment essential for sustainable agriculture. Visible and near-infrared (Vis–NIR) spectroscopy offers a non-destructive and cost-effective alternative to...

Pollination is a key ecosystem service forcacao (Theobroma cacao L.) production, yet naturalpollination rates are critically low, partly due toagricultural intensification and the widespread useof agrochemicals. We investigated how conventionalcrop management practices—specifically the applicationof an insecticide (cypermethrin), a fungicide(copper oxychloride), and a pollinator breeding substrate(oil palm fibre) affect pollination dynamics...

Agriculture is the single largest cause for transgressing planetary boundaries. A global transformation to sustainable intensification is required in order to hold the windows open for meeting the Paris climate accord of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and the global biodiversity framework of halting loss of biodiversity, while securing food...

Food systems are characterised by persistent injustices – from exploitative labour and unequal access to healthy food to disproportionate environmental burdens on marginalised communities. These injustices have spurred diverse conceptual frameworks (e.g., food democracy, food sovereignty, food justice), resulting in a fragmented debate around justice that tends to conceptualise it...

In this blog, Ilse, Ajinkya, Sajal and Hanwant argue for formally recognising camels as essential working animals for pastoral livelihoods and for facilitating their movement across state borders. 

In wetlands, water is the defining force shaping both ecosystems and livelihoods. Communities living in these regions hold rich traditional knowledge of water, embedded in their practices, institutions, and stories. In this blog, Suchiradipta argues that Extension and Advisory Services can serve as a vital bridge by translating between scientific...

Indigenous beekeeping practices across dryland and semi-arid regions often rely on wild, native pollinator populations and are embedded within seasonal, place-based ecological knowledge systems. These practices integrate biodiversity stewardship, water availability, food systems, and livelihoods without treating them as discrete domains. This learning material documents a Maasai women-led beekeeping practice in...

This case study documents how Maasai family farming systems in semi-arid northern Tanzania sustain household and livestock water access under prolonged drought through distributed, family-managed groundwater practices. In contexts where centralized water infrastructure is absent, communities rely on manually dug wells located in dry riverbeds and former lakebeds where surface...

In this episode of The Work We Do, we speak with Lauren Phillips, Director of Partnerships and UN Collaboration at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about why women and youth are central to the transformation of agrifood systems. The conversation draws on FAO’s flagship reports to...

This emergency agriculture support brief presents the results of the latest Data in Emergencies Monitoring (DIEM-Monitoring) round conducted in Colombia from August to October 2025. More than 100 000 agricultural households are in need of emergency agricultural assistance in Colombia. This DIEM-Monitoring brief provides humanitarian actors with an in-depth analysis...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and CARE USA collaborated in conducting a gender stocktaking exercise to enhance understanding of gender equality integration within Farmer Field School (FFS) programmes. The primary objective of this exercise was to better understand the extent to which FFS have addressed...

The 2025 edition of FAO Transforma, Unlocking Finance for Agrifood Systems Transformation, brought together governments, the private sector, multilateral banks, climate funds, philanthropy, and impact investors to bridge gaps between financing needs and opportunities. The event addressed structural challenges affecting the region’s agrifood systems, including rising food prices, extreme weather...

The numbers are clear: private sector engagement can make the difference for rural transformation. IFAD projects with strong private sector participation achieve average income gains of 64 per cent – four times higher than projects without such engagement. The public-private-producer partnership (4Ps) model is a key avenue to achieving this. Unlike traditional public-private partnerships, 4Ps explicitly include small-scale producers as equal, active partners rather than as suppliers or beneficiaries, catalysing sustainable,...

As part of the collaboration, two FAO E-learning Academy courses were made available in Arabic to enhance accessibility for professionals across Arabic-speaking countries . In addition, 49 FAO courses, including 43 in English and 6 in Arabic, were integrated into ICBA’s digital learning platform to benefit professionals in the region....

The Yucatán Black Hairless Pig (YBHP) is an indigenous Mexican breed shaped by tropicalenvironments and traditional management systems. This study aimed to characterize itsruns of homozygosity (ROH) and compare its ROH patterns with those of indigenous andcommercial pig breeds worldwide using the GGP Porcine 50K SNP array. After applyingstandard quality-control...