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The aim of this paper is to provide policy-makers with a helpful overview of the technical and economic aspects of water use in agriculture, with particular emphasis on crop and livestock production. Through 2050, in many countries, agriculture will remain an important determinant of economic growth, poverty reduction, and food security, even as, over time, the proportion of agricultural revenue in national gross income declines. Water use in agriculture will remain substantial, irrigated areas will expand and competition for water will increase in all sectors. Most likely, overall supplies of land and water will be sufficient to achieve global food [...]

This paper uses scenario analyses to investigate how reductions in food loss and waste (FLW) in the European Union (EU) could influence prices in sub-Saharan Africa – as a source and destination of traded agricultural and food products. In addition to a baseline “business as usual” (BaU) scenario, four scenarios with 50-percent reductions are enacted using the Modular Applied GeNeral Equilibrium Tool (MAGNET). The analysis provides insights on potential impacts in terms of medium- to long-term global and local price changes in sub- Saharan Africa and the mechanisms behind them – changes in production, consumption and trade patterns. It also provides [...]

Agriculture is a source of livelihood for over 35 percent of the world’s population. Natural hazards and disasters – such as floods, drought, storms, earthquakes, landsides, tsunamis or wildfire – disproportionately affect the small-scale farmers, herders, fishers and forest dependent communities who generate over half of the world’s agricultural production. Between 2004 and 2013, agriculture absorbed more than 22 percent of total damage and losses caused by natural disasters in developing countries. Vulnerability increases with each event, reversing improvements to food security, poverty reduction and agricultural development. As a result of climate change, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, intense [...]

Inclusive business models promote the integration of smallholders into markets, with the underlying principle that there are mutual benefits for poor farmers and the business community. A business model describes how any given enterprise – large or small, informal or formal – creates and markets its products or services, obtains finance, and sources inputs. Each enterprise has its own unique business model. The range of business models that make up an agricultural value chain include farm enterprises, traders, agroprocessors, wholesalers, transporters, warehouses and retailers, among others. An inclusive business model approach reinforces the value chain by focusing exclusively on strengthening business models that link small farmers to value chains. Smallholder business models [...]

Consistent with its mandate to pursue a world free from hunger and malnutrition, the following “FAO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples” has been formulated so as to ensure that FAO will make all due efforts to respect, include and promote indigenous issues in relevant work. In so doing, it joins the international community’s increasing mobilization in favour of the rights and concerns of indigenous peoples, most of whom suffer disproportionately from multiple adversities such as discrimination, poverty, ill health, political under-representation, and environmental and cultural degradation. Although much attention is focused on the challenges that indigenous peoples face, it [...]

Negative and positive drivers affecting forests in the GMS co-exist. Negative drivers result in deforestation and forest degradation, and positive drivers promote sustainable forest management (SFM), forest conservation, afforestation and reforestation. Negative drivers are still more dominant than positive ones. Nevertheless, growing signs of positive drivers are starting to emerge in the GMS countries. Policy makers, forest managers and practitioners need to be aware of these drivers and find ways to enhance the positive ones, while reducing the negative ones. In order to promote SFM and address deforestation and forest degradation, the GMS countries need to foster integrated land-use planning [...]

يقيّم التقرير السنوي عن حالة انعدام الأمن الغذائي في العالم لهذا العام التقدّم المحرز باتجاه تحقيق الهدف 1 من الأهداف الإنمائية للألفية المعمول بها دولياً والهدف الخاص بالجوع لمؤتمر القمة العالمي للأغذية، ويعكس الخطوات التي ينبغي القيام بها، مع انتقالنا إلى الخطة الجديدة للتنمية المستدامة لمرحلة ما بعد عام 2015. ويستعرض هذا التقرير التقدّم المحرز منذ عام 1990 في كلّ بلد وإقليم، وكذلك على مستوى العالم ككلّ. إلاّ أنّ التقدّم باتجاه تحقيق الهدف 1 من الأهداف الإنمائية للألفية لا يقيّم فقط من خلال قياس مستويات نقص التغذية، أو الجوع، إنما عبر مؤشر ثان – ألا وهو انتشار معدلات الأطفال ناقصي [...]

Outbreaks of transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases, including forest pests and aquatic diseases, food safety and radiation events has been increasing over the past years, impacting people’s access to quality food, and putting their livelihoods and health at risk. To address this challenge, FAO established the Food Chain Crisis Management Framework (FCC), an approach combining prevention, preparedness, and response to emergencies affecting the food chain and caused by transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases (including aquatic and forests pests and diseases), food safety and radiological threats.

Water is key to human life. It is key to human food security and nutrition. Safe drinking water and sanitation are fundamental to the good nutrition, health and dignity of all. How can the world ensure food and nutrition security given increasingly scarce water resources, especially in some regions, and the increasing competition for water uses?  This policy-oriented report from the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) presents a synthesis of existing evidence on the multiple relations between water and food security and nutrition, from global levels to household levels. The aim of this report, given the diversity [...]

Drylands cover nearly half of the earth’s land surface and are home to one-third of the global population. They face extraordinary challenges, including those posed by desertification, biodiversity loss, poverty, food insecurity and climate change. Up to 20 percent of the world’s drylands are degraded, and people living there are often locked into a vicious circle of poverty, unsustainable practices and environmental degradation. It is clear that serious efforts are needed to arrest dryland degradation and restore degraded lands, and the simple but urgent aim of these guidelines is to support such efforts. It is the first time that global guidelines on [...]