The GAFSP’s Missing Middle Initiative (MMI) is designed to stimulate greater investment along agricultural value chains and to reach small-scale farmers more directly. 

Rising sea temperatures, acidification, deoxygenation and salinity coupled with overfishing, pollution and habitat degradation are taking a toll on the livelihoods of the Gambia’s fisherfolk.

Agricultural supply chains and food systems offer vast employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for young women and men. But while young people are already transforming agrifood systems in Africa – building on opportunities and bringing in new ideas, innovative solutions, products, services, networks – they often work in low paid, precarious and unsafe jobs.

Since gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan has struggled with conflict, natural disasters and macroeconomic instability. Poverty, malnutrition and displacement rates are high, and basic infrastructure – roads, electricity, access to clean drinking water – is lacking.

Although the Plurinational State of Bolivia has made significant strides in reducing poverty and inequality in the last 20 years, economic growth and social gains have slowed in the last decade.

The world’s agrifood systems face multiple challenges, including climate change, pest and disease outbreaks, conflict and humanitarian crises. Many of these food systems risks are transboundary, making it essential to build robust, resilient agrifood systems.

A group of Palestinian and Jordanian olive producers and government representatives visited Apulia, Italy's leading olive oil producing region, to see what it takes – investments, innovations, cooperation between the public and private sectors – to build a booming industry.

The two-day event will delve into the policies and investments required to transform agrifood systems into greener, more sustainable and resilient entities. It will explore innovative financial solutions, including blended finance and carbon finance, among others.

One way to help small-scale farmers and agribusinesses optimize costs and be competitive is through reliable and timely knowledge and data.

Ahead of Sustainable Gastronomy Day (18 June), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have issued a new publication for hotels, restaurants and catering enterprises (HoReCa) on how best to source food from local suppliers.

FAO Investment Centre Deputy Director John Preissing reflects on his 15-year career at FAO as well his 25 additional work years, encouraging trends in agrifood investment and his plans for retirement.

A training program, organized by the EBRD and FAO on pruning and irrigation best practices began last month as part of efforts to build olive oil sector capacity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

As the world marks the World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June, here are four examples of the work FAO is doing to tackle this issue from the field right up to the global level, to ensure that children have a childhood.

A new World Bank project plans to make locally grown produce more readily available in Albania via micro food hubs set up on the outskirts of five major cities. At these hubs, small-scale farmers can sort, grade, package and sell their fruits and vegetables directly to local distributors and wholesale clients like restaurants, convenience stores and specialty shops.

Today’s new country support for Uganda’s dairy sector comes at a time when the country’s estimated production of raw milk has ballooned from 1.9 billion litres in 2014 to 2.8 billion in 2021. Despite that impressive growth, the dairy sector faces testing times ahead.

The initiative aims to diversify agrifood exports to non-traditional markets, including fruit and vegetables alongside the more established grain and cereal sectors. For wine, areas of work include improving the quality and consistency of production and developing a marketing strategy to promote the region’s wine on the international markets.

According to the review, 2022 saw the Centre clock some notable achievements against the backdrop of volatile food, fertilizer and fuel prices, supply chain disruptions, conflict, the climate crisis, humanitarian emergencies and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those include support in the design of 45 public investment projects in 32 countries, worth a total of $8.8 billion in new investments – up 22 percent from the previous year’s $7.2 billion.

A new course on quantifying the effects of activities, investments, projects, or policies on greenhouse gas emissions using the FAO Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) is now available online for policymakers, researchers and project managers alike through the Organization’s eLearning Academy.

Shorena Jambazishvili is responsible for inputting all data into Georgia's online National Animal Identification and Traceability System (NAITS), which records the data of all livestock that must be registered by law, their keepers and keeping locations.

Picture patches of tropical, dry forest separated by agricultural land stretched across the surface of six countries at the heart of the American continent. This is the Central American Dry Corridor, a 1 600-kilometre-long expanse through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama – home to 11.5 million rural people, who largely depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.