FAO.org

SARS-CoV-2 is an emerging virus currently causing a large epidemic of COVID-19. Countries have asked FAO to provide guidance on how to investigate the potential animal sources(s) of the virus.This summary provides a shorter version of the original paper on rapid qualitative risk assessment for SARS-CoV-2 spillover at animal-human interface, and highlights the key knowledge gaps and recommendations. Read the full document: Exposure of humans or animals to SARS-CoV-2 from wild, livestock, companion and aquatic animals. Click here for more resources related to COVID-19.

This platform aims at supporting policy makers, program planners, NGO staff and many other stakeholders in taking informed decisions at country, regional and global level in the area of nutrition and food safety. FAO/WHO GIFT's mission is to make publicly available existing quantitative individual food consumption data from all countries around the world, collected through both large nationwide surveys and small scale surveys. The platform provides food-based indicators in the field of nutrition and food safety as well as microdata.

The FIRST Programme aims to support the governments of targeted countries to strengthen the enabling policy and institutional environment for food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture (FNSSA). The programme is designed as a demand-based “policy assistance” facility which has its roots in the long-term partnership between FAO and the European Union and aims to add value to both partners’ actions at the country level.The programme approach of embedding a policy officer within partner country administrations, constitutes the best option for building trusted relationships to support improved policy processes. FIRST has created a high level of trust with government partners [...]

The Maghreb's oases systems provide a major contribution to the region's food security, economy and protection of natural resources and play an essential role in the settlement of populations through job creation. Despite this potential, oasis ecosystems are threatened by a range of complex factors related to the expansion of agricultural land, increasing scarcity of water resources and competition for water. The project “Adaptive management and monitoring of the Maghreb's oases systems", implemented by FAO in Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania from May 2016 to December 2019, brought together several key stakeholders from these three oasis countries, in order to address [...]

This brochure presents a series of knowledge platforms which make data and information on food and agriculture available, accessible and usable worldwide. This work contributes to the five priorities of FAO to achieve a world without hanger, malnutrition and poverty in a sustainable manner, with a focus on the exchange of knowledge, information and data as a key step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The FAO Statistics Division is monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on national agricultural censuses and provides an overview of its effects on ongoing activities. The information presented is the result of a rapid appraisal and informal consultations with national agricultural census authorities.Revised 13 May 2020New countries addedSee also: National agricultural census operations and COVID-19

FAOSTAT is FAO's most comprehensive digital platform on food and agriculture statistics, offering free access to 20 000 indicators on food and agriculture from over 245 countries and territories. The brochure presents FAOSTAT fundamental role in supporting FAO's effort for collecting, analyzing, interpreting food and agriculture statistics and disseminating them globally.

The Food Systems Dashboard combines data from multiple sources to give users a complete view of food systems. Users can compare components of food systems across countries and regions. They can also identify and prioritize ways to sustainably improve diets and nutrition in their food systems.Dashboards are useful tools that help users visualize and understand key information for complex systems. Users can track progress to see if policies or other interventions are working at a country or regional levelIn recent years, the public health and nutrition communities have used dashboards to track the progress of health goals and interventions, including [...]

SponGES is a research and innovation project funded under the H2020 Blue Growth initiative. It aims at “Improving the preservation and sustainable exploitation of Atlantic marine ecosystems” and at developing an integrated ecosystem-based approach to preserve and sustainably use deep-sea sponge ecosystems of the North Atlantic. Reducing the impacts of deep-sea bottom fishing in the high seas on these ecosystems is an important element of an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management. States and Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) have implemented a variety of measures to avoid and mitigate impacts of deep-sea bottom fishing on sponges, and have established methods for [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic is also affecting agricultural census activities. Currently, 62 countries are preparing (45 countries) or have conducted (17 countries) censuses of agriculture in the WCA 2020 round. A rapid appraisal and informal consultations with national agricultural census authorities reveal that some 34 countries reported delays or suspension of several census activities. Countries that have started or were about to start fieldwork and census enumeration have put these activities on hold until the crisis is over. Most countries agreed that the full impact on the preparation and implementation of national censuses will depend on the evolution of the crisis.