Results
Issue paper
2019
Microbiome: The missing link? Science and innovation for health, climate and sustainable food systems
Unhealthy diets now pose a greater risk to morbidity and mortality than unsafe sex, alcohol, and drug and tobacco use combined. They are at the root of the global obesity and diet-related non-communicable disease (NCD) pandemic. The ways of food production that lead to these unhealthy diets also pose a major threat to climate stability and ecosystem resilience, and constitute the most important driver of environmental degradation and natural resources depletion.In the short term, there is little that we can do to curb the global demand for food and other products that depend on biological resources. Demand will continue to [...]
Issue paper
2019
Handbook on climate information for farming communities – What farmers need and what is available
The content of this guide is twofold: to describe the most important weather and agroclimatic products that are available by the National Meteorological Service (NMS) and to identify the most important needs of farmers concerning climate information. Special consideration will be given to the local knowledge used by rural farmers, too often neglected, but a key factor to their ability to cope with climate variability and change.An additional objective of this guide is to improve communication among the NMS staff, in particular, meteorologists and agrometeorologists and to encourage Agro-Pastoral Field School (APFS) trainers and facilitators to be more aware of [...]
Tool
2019
Toolkit for value chain analysis and market development integrating climate resilience and gender responsiveness. Integrating agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag) Programme
This toolkit aims to help countries in selecting and analysing value chains for opportunities to improve climate change resilience and reduce gender inequalities. It intends to provide policy makers, planners, project developers, technical advisors and implementers at local, regional or national level with good practices of climate-resilient and gender-responsive value chain development. It aims to act as a repository of relevant tools and methodologies for identifying relevant stakeholders and engaging with them to collect data and analyse it to design interventions. Climate change threatens agricultural value chains, and having a gender-responsive value chain approach is useful in analysing the climate [...]
Issue paper
2019
Sustainable healthy diets. Guiding principles
Considering the detrimental environmental impact of current food systems, and the concerns raised about their sustainability, there is an urgent need to promote diets that are healthy and have low environmental impacts. These diets also need to be socio-culturally acceptable and economically accessible for all.Acknowledging the existence of diverging views on the concepts of sustainable diets and healthy diets, countries have requested guidance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on what constitutes sustainable healthy diets.These guiding principles take a holistic approach to diets; they consider international nutrition recommendations; the [...]
Issue paper
2019
Mountain agriculture. Opportunities for harnessing Zero Hunger in Asia
Why does mountain agriculture deserve special attention in a Zero Hunger context? Firstly, because hunger remains common in many mountainous areas. While on a global scale, food insecurity has tended to go down, mountain dwellers have fared worse than people living in plains. Secondly, because mountains cover a large part of the world, especially in Asia: the continent hosts more than one-third of the world’s mountains. Many Asian countries are dominated by mountains: for instance, nearly the entire land area in Bhutan is mountainous, and Lao PDR has 89 percent of its land area classified as mountainous or upland – [...]
Briefs
2019
Situación rural de América Latina y el Caribe con 2 grados de calentamiento. 2030 Alimentación, agricultura y desarrollo rural en América Latina y el Caribe. Documento nº 10
The document presents a description of the structure of the rural environment, demography, the supply of goods and services, the main inequalities, levels of poverty, importance and role of family agriculture and other economic activities (diversification), the main features of rural society and the presence of the private sector. It will also discuss trends in migration and other social or economic processes relevant to the description of the rural situation.
The text will also discuss the importance of rural development in achieving the SDGs by identifying the current situation and the extent of change required to meet the SDGs.
Tool
2019
Earth Observation — Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS)
The software programme for calculating the Agricultural Stress Index (ASI) was developed by the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) based on a methodology proposed by FAO CBC. VITO also developed the processing chains used to generate the ASI and other quick-look maps available on the online tool. EST-GIEWS is responsible for the global operation of the processing chain.
Tool
2019
Climate-smart agriculture and the Sustainable Development Goals. Mapping interlinkages, synergies and trade-offs and guidelines for integrated implementation
The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets presents a universally accepted and comprehensive framework addressing all aspects and dimensions of sustainability. The integration of the climate-smart agriculture (CSA) approach with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda provides an opportunity to enhance the overall sustainability of CSA results and synergize CSA interventions with other sustainable development efforts.To achieve this integration, a clear understanding of how the CSA implementation process can engage with the 2030 Agenda throughout the five CSA implementation steps is required. Moreover, the interlinkages between CSA objectives and [...]
Data and statistics
2019
Dare to Understand and Measure (DaTUM). A literature review of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) frameworks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
The main objective of this report is to review the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks, tools and guidance documents that are available for climate-smart agriculture (CSA), and in particular for objective (“pillar”) two on adaptation and resilience. The report is a literature review and does not propose a new methodology. It is not an exhaustive list, but summarises the main M&E frameworks. This report represents the first step towards the development of operational guidelines for the design and implementation of national M&E frameworks for CSA, to be developed during the first quarter of 2019. The envisioned operational guidelines will address [...]
Training & e-learning
2019
Climate-Smart Agriculture in action: from concepts to investments. Dedicated Training for Staff of the Islamic Development Bank
In October 2019, the IsDB and FAO Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa partnered to deliver the first Regional Workshop on Climate-Smart Agriculture in the NENA region. The IsDB now aims to ensure that all their offices are aware of CSA and are able to make investments that meaningfully take CSA and its principles into account. In so doing, they aim to enhance the capacity of the agricultural systems to support food security, incorporating the need for adaptation and the potential for mitigation into sustainable agriculture development strategies. FAO is proud to bring the four-day training on [...]
