Innovation and Knowledge for Investment (IK4I)
The Investment Centre provides a strong evidence-based voice on investment and finance solutions through its Innovation and Knowledge for Investment (IK4I) work.
By harnessing FAO’s technical expertise and leveraging partnerships with key financing and research institutions, the Centre fills critical knowledge gaps. It also shares the latest thinking and practical tools to support investment.
The growing body of investment knowledge products covers a wide range of topics – from scaling up agrifood investments for and by youth in Africa, to decarbonizing agrifood systems, among many others.
Latest stories
New book traces the FAO Investment Centre’s evolution over its first 60 years
19/12/2025
For over six decades, the FAO Investment Centre has helped countries invest in agrifood systems to reduce hunger, poverty and malnutrition and advance sustainable development.
A new publication, “The FAO Investment Centre, 60 Years Young, 1964–2024”, traces the Centre’s evolution over its first 60 years.
The potential of bioinputs for greener agrifood systems in Latin America and the Caribbean
17/06/2025
The Centre published Bioinputs: investment opportunities in Latin America. The report, part of FAO’s IK4I series, examines the economic viability, investment potential and social and environmental benefits of agricultural bioinputs in the region Agricultural bioinputs – products from plants, animals or microbes – are often used as supplements or natural alternatives to more synthetic agrochemicals.
Urban agriculture is experiencing a growth spurt
22/01/2025
Feeding our cities: How the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the movement of food in urban areas
02/12/2024
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way food is moved, sold and bought in urban areas worldwide – creating some new trends and accelerating others.
Latest publications
Country Investment Highlights
Climate-smart agriculture in China: From policy to investment
04/2023
FAO introduced CSA at the Hague Conference on Agricultural, Food Security and Climate Change in 2010 and has been strongly supporting it since then....
Country Investment Highlights
Sustainable agricultural mechanization in China: A comprehensive review
04/2023
This publication strives to comprehensively and systematically summarize the status and strategies of China's agricultural mechanization development,...
Investment Briefs
Investing in agriculture human capital: Roles for the private sector
04/2023
The objective of this brief is to assess the role of the private sector in developing human capital among smallholders. It identifies private sector...
Annual Reviews
FAO Investment Centre - 2022 at a glance
03/2023
FAO is committed to helping countries achieve a healthier, more sustainable future. That means finding the right combination of policies, innovations...
Investment Briefs
Evolution of food e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic
03/2023
The brief provides policy recommendations and identifies strategies and key areas of investment that are required for the sustainable development of...
Investment Briefs
Irrigating from space: Using remote sensing for agricultural water management
11/2022
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its partners have invested in developing databases and tools that apply remote...
Investment Briefs
Prices and farmer investment: Evidence from experimental studies
11/2022
Changes in commodity prices may impact smallholder farmers in various ways: to what extent do higher prices transmit to the farmer (or are they captured...
Investment Briefs
Investing in young agripreneurs: Why and how?
11/2022
Agripreneurship – entrepreneurial activity in agriculture – increases youth employment while teaching them the hard and soft skills they need to manage...
Investment Briefs
Investing in food loss and waste: What's in it for development banks?
09/2022
This Investment Brief summarizes the challenge of FLW. It focuses on identifying action areas for development banks to meet this challenge. Potential...
Directions in Investment
Implications of the war in Ukraine for agrifood trade and food security in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia
09/2022
The Russian Federation and Ukraine are major global suppliers of cereals and sunflower oil, while the Russian Federation is also...
Country Investment Highlights
Digital technologies in the grain sector of Ukraine
09/2022
Using extensive interviews, the report assesses the extent to which Ukrainian farmers have adopted digital technologies, the many barriers to them doing...
Investment Briefs
Funding digital transformation of land administration
09/2022
Digital transformation involves changing land administration systems from paper to 100 percent digital. It leads to greater activity and better efficiency...