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This sourcebook provides an overview of the second, digital edition of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Sourcebook. The new edition includes new findings, case studies and lessons learned. It also takes into account the changes in the landscape of international climate action since the original edition was published in 2013. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – which encompasses the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda – provides an international framework for strong national actions and collective efforts to achieve sustainable development. Climate-smart agriculture, as an approach to achieve sustainable food and agriculture, [...]

This study reviewed the achievements, and also the shortcomings, of 12 watershed management projects technically supported by FAO over the past decade, with a view to learning from experience. Unlike sectoral development approaches, watershed management involves examining the interactions among various natural processes and land uses and managing land, water and the wider ecosystem of the watershed in an integrated way. Watershed management is best carried out as a stepwise multistakeholder process. The review identified a sequence of steps that watershed management projects or programmes should ideally follow. The approach has demonstrated its effectiveness for responding to global challenges of [...]

Conservation agriculture (CA) aims to achieve sustainable and profitable agriculture and subsequently aimes at improved livelihoods of farmers through the application of the three CA principles: minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotations. CA holds tremendous potential for all sizes of farms and agro-ecological systems, but its adoption is perhaps most urgently required by smallholder farmers, especially those facing acute labour shortages. It is a way to combine profitable agricultural production with environmental concerns and sustainability and it has been proven to work in a variety of agroecological zones and farming systems. It is been perceived by practitioners [...]

Turkey’s agri-food sector will be of tremendous importance in the decades to come. In 2013, in terms of its total gross agricultural production value (at 2004-06 constant prices), Turkey was ranked eighth in the world, just behind Argentina and closely followed by France and Mexico. The first objective of this report is to compile empirical evidence from official statistics on water usage in the Turkish agricultural sector and to combine this with available qualitative information and first-hand company-level and stakeholder information about water usage in typical processing steps along the Turkish food value chain. This analysis was conducted while taking [...]

The objective of this case study is to understand the application of ICT technologies for rural groundwater management in China, and it’s impacts on the rural poor. This will help understand the physical and policy context this technology is being applied and expanded, its impact on resource management, and changes in water delivery service to farmers. These understanding will help improve this technology and provide data and information for its replication in other parts of Asia. It will also help understand the capabilities of the ICT within the water sector applications.

The GreeNTD is based on a socio-ecological territorial development methodology that supports a wide stakeholder’s engagement in seeking progressive territorial consensus through a holistic, bottom-up and negotiated vision. The final objective is to get an agreed, socially legitimate and sustainable use and management of natural resources whilst safeguarding the ecosystem, current and future. The proposed methods and tools are thought to facilitate the potential users in the implementation of the approach and to facilitate the application of the agreement. The toolkit presents a set of tools to be used in various steps of the territorial development interventions within the GreeNTD [...]

This publication gives recommendations (e.g. improving water management and infrastructure, strengthening resilience and consolidating institutional capacity) to tackle the negative impacts of climate change and food insecurity on rural households.

This study analyses Egypt’s agricultural sector and its performance over time, identifies constraints to increasing production and exports, and examines the key role of trade in inclusive agriculture development.  After a review of current trends in the agricultural sector and trade policies, the study elaborates on the main pillars of Egypt’s current agricultural development strategy and the factors inhibiting growth of agricultural production and trade. The study concludes by identifying recommended policy changes for improving trade performance such that it could serve to improve food security, incomes, and sustainability in agriculture, with a specific look at the fresh fruit and vegetables markets, in particular analysing Egypt’s orange and grapes [...]

This Regional Gender Strategy is designed to enable FAO RNE officers and country officers in the region as well as development practitioners to respond to current regional priorities. As a complement to the FAO Gender Equality Policy, the regional gender strategy will promote coherence and improve efficiency of gender-sensitive programming. The strategy supports the development of easy and efficient approaches and methodologies to adequately address the needs of the different stakeholders and specific groups, particularly the most invisible and under-considered ones among women, men, youth as well as understand the different interactions or synergies. It is aligned with global FAO [...]

Unsustainable water use (over-drafted aquifers, seasonally dry rivers, disappearing lakes and wetlands) is a problem across the world. This is especially true in the NENA region, which includes many of the most water-short countries in the world. This review indicates that there are rather few examples of carefully documented impacts of hi-tech irrigation, while there are many examples of projects and programs that assume that water will be saved and productivity increased. The conclusion of this report is that restoring a balance between sustainable supply and consumption of water requires first physical control of the water resource by government or [...]