As the world marks International Youth Day 2025 today, Ethiopia offers a powerful example of what young people can achieve. Just days ago, on August 9–10, 2025 Reboot the Earth Ethiopia brought together brilliant young innovators, experts and leaders for a dynamic two-day challenge: harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to transform agriculture and help farmers adapt to climate change. In Ethiopia, smallholder farmers produce most of the country’s food but often lack access to timely advice and support. Reboot the Earth Ethiopia creates a space where youth can design practical, locally relevant solutions that address real-world agricultural challenges...

The Global AgriInno Challenge (GAC) 2025, co-organized by FAO, Zhejiang University, and Pinduoduo, supported by the Foreign Economic Cooperation Center, MARA, P.R.China (FECC) and Government of Binjiang District, Hangzhou City, has concluded after three days of innovation, learning, and collaboration.This year’s competition received 519 applications from 97 countries, the most competitive edition to date. From these, nine youth-led solutions were selected to pitch in Hangzhou, representing Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, China, Thailand, Colombia, Hungary, and the United States...

Digital transformation is reshaping agrifood value chains—from boosting productivity to improving food safety and creating new economic opportunities. Yet many young agripreneurs and organizations face challenges scaling promising solutions due to limited digital skills, weak innovation ecosystems, and gaps in financing and partnerships...

Madagascar faces some of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world and, in Mizilo, diets were once limited to basic meals like cassava and rice mixed with salt and water. June 2024 was the turning point, when the Vonona Hiasa Farmer Field School (FFS) was established, funded by the Flexible Voluntary Contribution. Clarette was nominated to lead the group of 24 women, with the mission to grow and eat more nutritious food...

Marie Therese is one of many farmers in the Bekaa region taking part in Lebanon’s renewed effort to revive the chickpea sector under FAO’s One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative, implemented in partnership with  Lebanon’s Ministry of Agriculture...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently donated two portable high-tech soil scanners and access to the software license to the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, and Fisheries in Antigua and Barbuda aimed to boost the health of plant and productivity of the agricultural sector.  Following the donation, FAO worked closely with the ministry to conduct a training workshop for 21 persons, including ministry officials and farmers on May 7, 2025, on the effective use of the equipment...

A key outcome of the workshop was the presentation of the Regional Food Safety Research and Innovation Network, designed to link research, innovation and practice, and to promote collaboration, knowledge exchange and scalable digital solutions for safer agrifood systems...

FAO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MInT) hosted an "Innovation Policy Lab (IPL) Phase 1 Sensemaking Workshop" on December 23, bringing together policymakers, startups, researchers, and development partners. The workshop's primary objective was to critically examine Ethiopia's agrifood innovation and startup ecosystem. Utilizing tools like the Iceberg Model and Problem Tree analysis, participants collaboratively identified and prioritized key policy and implementation challenges...

Local farmers in Colombia have long conserved and developed native seeds with distinctive traits, yet their contributions often went unrecognized and unrewarded because existing seed laws and policies—like those in many countries—were designed primarily to govern commercial seeds. Innovation Policy Labs (IPL), FAO’s newest policy-innovation tool, provides a structured, co‑creative approach to policy design, de‑risking, and implementation that can change that dynamic.

In today’s fast-changing world, making inclusive, evidence-based decisions in agrifood systems is more important—and more complex—than ever. The Innovation Policy Labs (IPLs) approach offers a transformative approach to tackling this challenge through co-creation, collaboration, and innovation. IPLs are currently implemented through the FAO project: Innovation policy labs (IPL) to promote evidence-based, inclusive and co-created decision-making (2024-2026) in four countries: Colombia, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Uzbekistan.

Jamaica has officially launched the implementation of the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative with a national workshop aimed at revitalizing the country’s ginger industry. The launch and kick-off meeting, held at Medallion Hall Hotel in Kingston on July 10, was conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining and the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA)...

Dushanbe – The capital of Tajikistan came alive this weekend as people gathered to celebrate the Tirgon festival, one of the country’s most cherished seasonal traditions. This year’s festivities were made even more special with the apricot festival and an exhibition dedicated to “Dried fruits of Tajikistan,” highlighting the nation’s agricultural heritage and showcasing the apricot as a symbol of pride and progress...

A joint mission to Nepal’s eastern hills in early April marked a significant step towards strengthening the value chain of large cardamom in the country. A delegation from FAO, the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR-CAS), and national partners visited the Ilam district to pilot the Geographical Indications for Environment and Sustainability (GIES) certification of large cardamom, the special agricultural product of Nepal under FAO’s One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) Initiative and Four Better Model Village Initiative.

Organized by FAO, the training brought together more than 26 agricultural engineers and extension officers from Lebanon’s Ministry of Agriculture. The workshop is part of FAO’s One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative, which helps countries in promoting sustainable value chain development of priority agricultural products around the world.

Bangkok: More than 60 government officials, entrepreneurs, and stakeholders of agrifood systems from 19 Asia and the Pacific countries have completed a dynamic four-day training to maximize the nutritional value of special agricultural products (SAPs) under the FAO’s One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) Initiative. This workshop combined online and on-site sessions to equip participants with expertise in food processing, safety, and quality enhancement...

FAO Member Countries participating in the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) Initiative are set to strengthen national ownership, scale practical innovations, and deepen collaboration to advance sustainable value chains for special agricultural products in the coming years. At the 2025 OCOP Global Annual Coordination Meeting on 17 December 2025, participants were urged to continue their “incredible” work in advancing the initiative worldwide.

Rwanda has made steady progress toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with key achievements including a reduction in stunting among children under five, which has fallen from nearly 38 percent in 2014/15 to 33 percent in 2019/20. Yet challenges remain, with around 20 percent of households still facing moderate or severe food insecurity...

Sierra Leone is stepping up its support for agrifood enterprises through stronger public-private-academic collaboration, with the aim of creating a more coordinated, innovation-driven and inclusive agrifood ecosystem capable of driving sustainable agrifood system transformation. This ambition unfolded at the National Workshop on Strengthening Sierra Leone’s MSMEs Ecosystem through Green and Inclusive Agripreneurship, held on 24 October in Freetown...

In September 2025, ten young entrepreneurs gathered in Maseru for a week-long business incubation workshop designed to strengthen their enterprises and equip them to play a bigger role in transforming Lesotho’s agrifood systems. Organized under the FAO HASTEN project, the workshop brought together youth- and women-led businesses, with FAO experts and national and international coaches to focus on business growth strategies, sustainable practices, and practical ways to enhance their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)...

Youth and women entrepreneurs from across Rwanda completed a business incubation workshop last week under the FAO HASTEN project, gaining new skills to grow their enterprises and drive progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event also rallied national stakeholders around a shared commitment of support to micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises as part of Rwanda’s agrifood systems transformation...