Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Rural development

Reports and briefs

The future of food and agriculture: Trends and challenges

What will be needed to realize the vision of a world free from hunger and malnutrition? After shedding light on the nature of the challenges that agriculture and food systems are facing now and throughout the 21st century, the study provides insights into what is at stake and what needs to be done....

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Reports and briefs

Food consumption, urbanisation and rural transformations in Southeast Asia

By 2050, nearly 63 per cent of the total population of Southeast Asia is expected to live in urban areas. Not only is urbanisation profoundly changing urban-rural relations, it is also shifting patterns of food consumption. Governments in the region are modernising food systems, in part to meet the...

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Urbanisation, changing tastes and rural transformation in West Africa

Between 1950 and 2000, the total population of West Africa increased fourfold, with almost one third now living in urban centres. Alongside growing urbanisation, many countries in the region increasingly rely on food imports for certain staples. These imports mix with local and regional foods to...

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Reports and briefs

Food consumption, urbanisation and rural transformation: the trade dimensions

Growing urban demand for food – which now constitutes about 60–70 per cent of food consumption in Asia and more than half in Africa – is met largely by trade. This paper reviews evidence for what this trade means for rural areas, and for successful rural economic transformation. It also reviews...

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Reports and briefs

Food systems at the rural-urban interface

Promoting better market access and market performance for smallholder agricultural producers and the provision of access to better quality and lower price food for the majority of the world’s population requires the strengthening of rural-urban linkages and putting ‘place-based development’ at the...

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report for 2016 has been released

The State of Food and Agriculture 2016 report (SOFA 2016), FAO’s annual flagship publication, has been released yesterday.

SOFA assesses issues on agricultural and rural development in the context of global food security. This year’s SOFA report centres on the double challenge of food security and climate change, presenting alternatives to tackle the two as a whole.

The report and furher information are available in all UN six languages at: http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/en/