Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

More than 500 million family farms manage the majority of the world's agricultural land and produce most of the world's food. We need family farms to ensure global food security, to care for and protect the natural environment and to end poverty, undernourishment and malnutrition. Goals can be thoroughly achieved if public policies support family farms to become more productive and sustainable; in other words policies must support family farms to innovate within a system that recognizes their diversity and the complexity of the challenges faced.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2014: Innovation in family farming analyses family farms and the role of innovation in ensuring global food security, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. It argues that family farms must be supported to innovate in ways that promote sustainable intensification of production and improvements in rural livelihoods.

• Read the publication
• SOFA 2014 In Brief
• View the entire SOFA collection since 1947

General introduction

Unique opportunity to participate in a course at one of the world's leading universities in its field. Wageningen UR is recognized as a world-leader in research and education in the domains of healthy living environments, safe and secure food, and sustainable value chains. We offer a wide range of courses which will help you to develop the capacities, leadership qualities needed to be creative, adaptive and responsive to the dynamics of a rapidly changing world. In our courses we connect WUR’s technical and scientific expertise with cutting-edge processes of innovation and learning.

Course introduction:

To go beyond just an increase in outputs to feed 9 billion people in 2050, an integral redirection of current farming practices is required. Nowadays there is a compelling need for creative thinkers that lead the way to innovative and more sustainable agricultural production. This two week’s intensive course will give you new tools and perspectives to become one of them. For information about this course please visit the following website:

http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Research-institutes/Centre-for-development-innovation/short-courses/short-courses-2014/cdicourse_agriculture_in_transition_2014.htm

Funding

For this course there are NFP Fellowships. A limited number of fellowships is available from Nuffic - the Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP) for nationals of certain countries. In order to apply for such a NFP fellowship, you have to register at the following website: http://www.studyinholland.nl/scholarships/scholarships-administered-by-nuffic/netherlands-fellowship-programmes/scholarships-online-sol.

You will be informed by Nuffic whether your application has been accepted. For more information visit: http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Research-Institutes/centre-for-development-innovation/short-courses/how-to-apply.htm

The application deadline for the NFP fellowships is 1 October 2013.

Registration deadline: 24th of March 2014

How to apply:

For more information about registration for his course visit:

http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Research-institutes/Centre-for-development-innovation/short-courses/short-courses-2014/cdicourse_agriculture_in_transition_2014.htm

Or contact: [email protected]

Location: The Netherlands

Food systems for better nutrition

Malnutrition in all its forms – undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity – imposes unacceptably high economic and social costs on countries at all income levels. Improving nutrition and reducing these costs requires a multisectoral approach that begins with food and agriculture and includes complementary interventions in public health and education. The traditional role of agriculture in producing food and generating income is fundamental, but the entire food system – from inputs and production, through processing, storage, transport and retailing, to consumption – can contribute much more to the eradication of malnutrition.

Agricultural policies and research must continue to support productivity growth for staple foods while paying greater attention to nutrient-dense foods and more sustainable production systems. Traditional and modern supply chains can enhance the availability of a variety of nutritious foods and reduce nutrient waste and losses. Governments, international organizations, the private sector and civil society can help consumers choose healthier diets, reduce waste and contribute to more sustainable use of resources by providing clear, accurate information and ensuring access to diverse and nutritious foods.

The 2012 edition of The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA 2012) - Investing in Agriculture for a better future was just released.

Investing in agriculture is essential for reducing hunger and promoting sustainable agricultural production. Those parts of the world where investments in agriculture have stagnated are the epicentres of poverty and hunger today. Demand growth over the coming decades will place increasing pressure on the natural resource base. Eradicating hunger sustainably will require a significant increase in agricultural investments, and an improvement in their effectiveness.

Farmers are the largest investors in developing country agriculture and must be central to any strategy for increasing investment in the sector. If they are to invest more in agriculture they need economic incentives and an enabling environment. Governments have a special responsibility to help smallholders overcome the constraints they face. Government investment in agriculture is crucial for providing an enabling environment for private investments in the sector.

Trends and impacts of foreign investment in developing country agriculture - Evidence from case studies

Large-scale international investments in developing country agriculture, especially acquisitions of agricultural land, continue to raise international concern. Certainly, complex and controversial issues – economic, political, institutional, legal and ethical – are raised in relation to food security, poverty reduction, rural development, technology and access to land and water resources. Yet at the same time, some developing countries are making strenuous efforts to attract foreign investment into their agricultural sectors. They see an important role for such investments in filling the gap left by dwindling official development assistance and the limitations of their own domestic budgetary resources, creating employment and incomes and promoting technology transfer. More investment is certainly needed – more than US$80 billion per year according to FAO analysis. But can foreign direct investment be compatible with the needs of local stakeholders as well as those of the international investor? And can these investments yield more general development benefits?

Please note that the deadline for this call has been extended to 15 November

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is pleased to invite experts to submit abstracts for consideration for inclusion in the above-mentioned expert meeting that is to be held early 2013. Successful applicants will be asked to prepare, present and discuss papers on topics relevant to their expertise. A report of the meeting including all papers presented, will be published and disseminated. A synthesis paper will be prepared drawing on information provided by the papers and on the discussions of the papers in the meeting to help inform the debate at the ICN+21 itself.

This expert meeting will focus on the contribution the food and agricultural system makes to nutrition. The expert meeting will focus on the topics that are listed in the call looking at the impact the food and agriculture system has or potentially could have on malnutrition, both on under- as well as on over-nutrition in both developed and developing countries. While medical approaches and public health interventions are not the focus, a perspective from the health side will be provided.

The expert meeting on nutrition-sensitive food and agriculture systems will determine how food and agriculture systems can better provide the food and livelihoods that lead to improved diets and better nutrition, reducing levels of under nutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and over nutrition, including NCDs. This may be through improved production, trade, processing and distribution systems as well as policies which lead to increased availability, access to and consumption of foods of adequate quantity (calories) and quality (in terms of variety, diversity, nutrient content and safety).

The meeting will discuss policy, strategic, methodological, technical and programmatic challenges and document and present evidence, lessons learned, best practices, knowledge and tools which can mitigate and respond to these challenges. Areas of focus will include food and agriculture system-based approaches for improving diets and raising levels of nutrition; evidence-based recommendations for improved food, agriculture and trade policies and programme design, management and implementation; innovation in methodologies for evaluation of impact, efficacy and cost-effectiveness as well as strategies to promote better eating habits and positive health and dietary behaviours.

The expert meeting will raise the awareness of policy makers of the need to place more emphasis on these approaches if the MDGs are to be achieved. The meeting will serve as the basis for future dialogue, debate and information exchange and facilitate wider support for an international movement committed to the implementation of effective, sustainable and long-term nutrition-sensitive food and agriculture system-based solutions to hunger and malnutrition. The expert meeting outputs are expected to feed into the ICN+21 process thereby contributing to informing the post-2015 UN development agenda by helping to identify priority areas and sustainable development goals for nutrition, as well as the policies and plans and the investments required to improve nutrition.

On the basis of the discussions carried out during the Expert Meeting and issues raised, authors will further develop their papers within three months after the event for publishing in the Proceedings.

Abstracts may be sent to [email protected] and to [email protected].

The deadline is 15 November 2012.

For further information please visit the ICN+21 web site.

 

Sustainable agricultural productivity growth and bridging the gap for small-family farms.

Early in 2012, Mexico, as G20 President, invited international organizations to examine practical actions that could be undertaken to sustainably improve agricultural productivity growth, in particular on small family farms.

The preparation of this report, coordinated by FAO and the OECD, is a collaborative undertaking by Bioversity, CGIAR Consortium, FAO, IFAD, IFPRI, IICA, OECD, UNCTAD, UN High Level Task Force on the Food Security Crisis, WFP, World Bank and WTO.