FAO.org

This report presents insights and emerging lessons on food systems governance from the experience of nine cities that have developed urban food interventions – Baltimore, Belo Horizonte, Lima, Medellín, Nairobi, Quito, Seoul, Shanghai and Toronto – and draws on diverse sources of secondary information regarding the experiences of other cities throughout the world. It highlights entry points for the governance of urban food systems issues; common procedural and content-related considerations when addressing those issues; predominant governance models; and operational opportunities for future investment. Successful examples can encourage other local governments to adapt new approaches and innovate within their own context. Every [...]

This report examines how forests contribute to or suffer from disasters. Three events are examined: the tempest Gudrun (Sweden, 2005); the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami (Japan 2011); and the 2017 firestorm in Chile.Forests are “victims” of disaster when unable to provide services required by society and cannot recover within a relevant timeframe. Trees damaged may host insect pests that may kill healthy trees or become fuel for forest fires. Fallen trees also damage infrastructure.Extreme events can change the cultural and economic life of small states/islands and/or cause the breakdown of societal services.Disasters affect timber supplies, distorting market functioning. Damaged timber [...]

This third edition of the State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries provides a comprehensive overview of the status of fisheries in the region, looking at their main features and trends, in order to better inform their management and better examine current and future challenges that they will face in the near future. The aim of this report is to produce a document that could provide useful analysis and direction for decision-making and future action. In this respect, this publication also represents a convenient source of information for the FAO Committee on Fisheries and offers a practical complement to the [...]

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, probably originated from an animal source, similar to 60 percent of all human infectious diseases. The pandemic has emphasized the need to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond to diseases at primary spillover level, where a new pandemic is likely to start. Pathogens are most likely to spread in locations where wildlife comes into contact with livestock production, particularly where people earn livelihoods, such as in live animal markets, areas where bushmeat is hunted, traded and consumed, or where growing pressures on natural ecosystems has forced livestock, wildlife and humans into close proximity. As [...]

Rwanda’s agricultural sector accounts for about 29 percent of GDP and employs about 72 percent of the population that is economically active. It is still the dominant source of income for the majority of the poor who live in rural areas and is of significant importance in achieving the national priority objectives of sustainable economic growth, food security, and poverty alleviation.The report provides quantitative evidence on how the Government of Rwanda’s policies and expenditure decisions have supported its food and agriculture sector over the past decade. More, in particular, it provides information on the extent to which producers of key [...]

La pandémie de covid-19 menace gravement la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition et a considérablement affecté les moyens de subsistance et les conditions de travail dans les filières agricoles. Ce document d'orientation se concentre sur le rôle de l'investissement responsable et de la conduite responsable des entreprises dans les filières agricoles dans le contexte de la pandémie de covid-19. Il présent des recommandations politiques aux gouvernements, aux investisseurs, aux entreprises et à la société civile sur la manière d'encourager les investissements responsables et la conduite responsable des entreprises dans l'agriculture en ces temps difficiles.Voir la liste complète des synthèses relatives [...]

There were seven confirmed local cases of COVID-19 in Beijing on 11 and 12 June 2020. Epidemiological investigations confirmed that all cases were related to the Beijing Xinfadi Agricultural Produce Wholesale Market. The market supplies 80 percent of Beijing’s demand for agricultural products. Notably, it accounts for roughly 70 percent of Beijing’s market for vegetables. On 13 June, the Xinfadi market and some other markets with COVID-19 cases connected with Xinfadi were temporarily closed. Measures including nucleic acid testing, environment sampling, isolation of close contacts and closed management (controlled entry and exit) of the relevant communities were implemented. Meanwhile, to [...]

FAO Project GCP /SFS/004/EC. The overall objective of the STOSAR project is to accelerate progress towards implementation of the SDAC regional integration, which focuses on: i. enhancing information on agricultural production, sustainability and competitiveness for evidence-based decision-making; and, ii. improving access to markets through implementation of plant and animal pest and disease control strategies at the regional level.

By analyzing agri-food value chains, policy makers and researchers are able to better understand how economic, social and environmental dimensions are intertwined. This is an important step, which allows for identification of areas for potential improvement along an agri-food value chain. EX-ACT Value Chain (EX-ACT VC) is derived from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) EX-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT). The tool is based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodology to account for GHG emissions of primary agricultural production, augmented with methodologies from peer reviewed literature to cover the remaining sectors and actors in [...]

The text provides a description, analysis and perspectives of the traditional supply and marketing channels in the face of the pandemic. It identifies its main challenges, the contingency measures adopted by governments and the channels themselves. In addition, it delves into the effects and impacts of the pandemic on these commercial circuits, workers, among others. Finally, it summarizes the innovation and adaptation measures against COVID-19 and makes suggestions for modernization. Also available in Spanish. See more COVID-19 policy resources here.