Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

FAO/GIEWS has released the latest issue of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation quarterly report, which highlights that food assistance needs grow as the COVID-19 pandemic hits incomes. Globally, 45 countries, including 34 in Africa, are in need of external assistance for food. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly through the loss of income and jobs related to containment measures, have severely aggravated global food security conditions, as well as increasing the number of people in need of assistance. Conflicts and weather shocks remained critical factors affecting the current high levels of severe food insecurity.

HIGHLIGHTS

Africa

Larger harvests are estimated in Southern Africa and East Africa, despite floods and outbreaks of desert locusts; although pest damages have been largely contained, serious concerns remain in some countries. Adverse weather reduced wheat outputs in North African countries, while cereal production in West Africa is foreseen at a slightly above-average level. Protracted conflicts continue to limit growth in agricultural production in Central Africa.

Asia

Widespread floods caused damage in several countries in Far East Asia, but rains across the subregion were also beneficial for paddy production and the output in 2020 is forecast at a record high. In the Near East, reflecting improved security conditions and favourable weather, production upturns were estimated in the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq in 2020. Rainfall shortages generally kept wheat outputs in CIS countries at below-average levels, but barley production increased driven by larger plantings.

Latin America and the Caribbean

In South America, cereal production is forecast to reach a new record high in 2020 underpinned by large maize plantings in Brazil and Argentina, as weak currencies boosted export demand and incentivized farmers. In Central America and the Caribbean, overall favourable weather conditions supported good yields, and cereal production in 2020 is expected at a slightly above-average level.

Please download the full report here: http://www.fao.org/3/cb1101en/CB1101EN.pdf

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the University of Évora present the

SALSA Project Final Conference

Can small farms and food businesses improve people’s access to more and better food in our globalized world?

Thursday, 25 June 2020 from 10:00 to 11:00 and from 11:30 to 13:00 (CET)

Please register to follow the virtual event through the Zoom conferencing platform.

The webcast will be streamed live on YouTube in English.

For more information click here.

The Research and Extension Unit (AGDR) of FAO participates in SALSA – Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security, an EU-funded research project of the Horizon2020 program which run from April 2016 to July 2020 with the aim to provide a better understanding of the role of small farms and small food businesses in meeting the sustainable food and nutrition security (FNS) challenge.

SALSA – Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security, is an EU-funded research project of the Horizon2020 program which run from April 2016 to July 2020 with the aim to provide a better understanding of the role of small farms and small food businesses in meeting the sustainable food and nutrition security (FNS) challenge. SALSA pioneered a novel integrated multimethod approach in 30 regions across 19 countries in Europe and Africa using the most recent satellite technologies, transdisciplinary approaches, food systems mapping and participatory foresight analysis.

The Final Conference will take place on 25 June 2020 and will be divided into two main parts:

Part A – 10:00 – 11:00 (CET)

Overview and highlights of main results from the SALSA project

The first part of the Conference aims to summarise and illustrate SALSA’s main results including:

• new concepts and theory developed by the project with respect to small farms and food businesses;
• the validated SALSA methodology, used for identification of small farms crop types, crop area and production estimates, as well as regular monitoring of small farms’ production;
• the novel typology of small farms identified and their importance within food systems;
• Food systems’ maps which unveil the role of small farms and their market linkages within the food systems.

Part B – 11:30 – 13:00 (CET)

Enabling governance and policy recommendations for small farms and small food business

SALSA has aimed to contribute to strengthen the role of small farms and small food business in regional food systems.

This second part of the Conference highlights two of the main SALSA’s contributions in this regard:

• the identification and characterisation of enabling governance frameworks for small farms and small food business;
• tailored and fit-for-purpose multilevel policy recommendations.
• These are particularly crucial in the midst of relevant processes of policy reform in the European Union (CAP and its National Strategic Plans, ‘Farm to Fork’ and ‘Biodiversity’ new strategies, EU-Africa Strategy), as well as in the frame of the current COVID-19 crisis and its impacts on the food system.

The two sessions will welcome the active participation and questions from the audience.

The Programme of the Conference and the bios of the speakers are also available at this link