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Digital technologies have a high potential to enable further development of the agricultural sector, significantly reshape food value chains (FVCs), and greatly contribute towards more productive, resilient and transparent food systems. This paper provides a non-technical overview of digital technologies that have a high potential to revolutionize the agriculture and food industry, and contribute towards inclusion of small farmers into FVCs. The particular focus is on digital platforms providing e-commerce services and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), such as blockchain, as they mutually enable more efficient and more inclusive local and global agricultural markets by tackling their contribution to reducing information asymmetries, [...]

The crisis has heavily affected fisheries and aquaculture. The restrictive health measures have had adverse effects on the free operation of the sector. The sector needs short term action; it also needs to modify some aspects of the activity that have been dragging on for some time. Thus for example, technology and innovation can play an essential role. Also available in Spanish. See here more FAO publications on COVID19.

This publication highlights various access points for projects and initiatives that engage and mobilize young people. It focuses on climate-resilient capacity development, agricultural education, and entrepreneurial guidance to promote decent rural employment in agriculture, and platforms that create alliances and networks for stimulating climate action and exchanging information. It presents activities that have successfully reached youth. These activities include competitions, such as 'hackathons' and flagship educational products that support everyday climate action. The projects and initiatives presented here also emphasize the key role partnerships among governments, the private sector, other international organizations and local cooperatives play in achieving successful outcomes. [...]

‘“Business as usual” is no longer an option for a food-secure future. Pastoralism can be an innovative system: a time-tested, undervalued alternative to high-input and resource-intensive farming, and a valuable lesson for the much needed evolution towards ‘farming with nature’, with largely-untapped potential for income growth and employment in marginal areas.Two main points are made. First, pastoral systems are emblematic of farming with nature: they have evolved to function with the natural environment and therefore with variability; for this reason, pastoralism has great potential in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals in a climate-change scenario where variability is globally on the [...]

FAO’s Investment Centre provides a wide range of investment support services to developing and transition countries. This third annual review shines a light on the work of the Investment Centre and its partners - the international financing institutions - carried out in 2019 to increase the volume and quality of investments in food security, nutrition, agriculture and rural development. During that year, the Centre supported investment-related policy studies and processes to increase policy dialogue and contributed to the design, technical assistance, supervision or evaluation of investment projects in 133 countries. It increasingly linked both its policy work with investment support to [...]

The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2020 (SOCO 2020) aims to discuss policies and mechanisms that promote sustainable outcomes – economic, social and environmental – in agricultural and food markets, both global and domestic. The analysis is organized along the trends and challenges that lie at the heart of global discussions on trade and development. These include the evolution of trade and markets; the emergence of global value chains in food and agriculture; the extent to which smallholder farmers in developing countries participate in value chains and markets; and the transformative impacts of digital technology on markets.Along these themes, SOCO [...]

This policy brief provides an overview on the role of digital technologies in optimizing traceability in trade for animals and animal products. It highlights the ways in which digital technologies can the enhance performance for monitoring and controlling animal disease, managing food safety and fraud risks, complying with animal production and food standards, facilitating trade and raising consumer awareness.

This study highlights the links between agroecology and climate change, by providing evidence on the technical (i.e. ecological and socio-economic) and policy potential of agroecology to build resilient food systems. The report aims to answer the following question:- How can agroecology foster climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience through practices and policies?Inspired by the idea that transformation will only happen through a coordinated approach among all levels, this study aims to combine evidence from a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives.

This policy brief provides an overview of how digital technologies can help facilitate access to trade finance for market participants, in particular micro, small and medium sized enterprises, by addressing numerous challenges in traditional trade finance. Find more FAO Trade Policy briefs here.

Decisions over tenure – who gets access to land, fisheries, and forests, for how long, and under what conditions – have important implications for people’s livelihoods. Spatial planning procedures can have a considerable impact on the legitimate tenure rights of the respective rights holders and, in the long term, can affect livelihoods.This technical guide on regulated spatial planning and tenure acknowledges this link and provides guidance on the importance of recognizing legitimate tenure rights in spatial planning processes. Strengthening civic spaces in spatial planning processes focuses on the practical challenges of implementing spatial planning objectives and considering peoples’ tenure over [...]