FAO.org

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will vary for different groups of rural population, with the highest impact expected to be on farmers and other vulnerable groups, especially women and youth. Targeted support is feasible only by activating a network of actors or organizations within agricultural innovation systems (AIS) and promoting customized technologies and practices suitable for location specific contexts. This brief illustrates the extensive repository of good practices and technologies provided by FAO as part of its online knowledge portals. These practices and technologies can be easily adopted to respond to the needs of the smallholders, rural youth and [...]

People living in context prone to or affected by conflict suffer from many forms of deprivation. The international community plays a crucial role in strengthening the wellbeing of affected populations, including their food security. Unfortunately, quite often people exposed to conflict are not reached by national or international assistance because of targeting, accessibility, and marginalization. This can ultimately translate into a further deterioration of their food security status. This paper combines a geo-referenced household dataset collected in South Sudan in 2017 with the Armed Conflict Location and Events Data (ACLED), including information on conflict events. The collection of a very detailed [...]

Structural transformation involves the reallocation of resources from less to more productive uses. It involves growth in agricultural productivity and generation of higher productivity jobs in other sectors. In addition, in the longer-term, it can support poverty reduction. However, the transition process and its outcomes are frequently challenging – especially among the poor and vulnerable people and households, given the economic and social forces that pressure them to adapt to realities faster than they are able to. The objective of the paper is to show how social protection policies and programmes can contribute to structural transformation, smoothen the transition for the [...]

Unhealthy diets now pose a greater risk to morbidity and mortality than unsafe sex, alcohol, and drug and tobacco use combined. They are at the root of the global obesity and diet-related non-communicable disease (NCD) pandemic. The ways of food production that lead to these unhealthy diets also pose a major threat to climate stability and ecosystem resilience, and constitute the most important driver of environmental degradation and natural resources depletion.In the short term, there is little that we can do to curb the global demand for food and other products that depend on biological resources. Demand will continue to [...]

The content of this guide is twofold: to describe the most important weather and agroclimatic products that are available by the National Meteorological Service (NMS) and to identify the most important needs of farmers concerning climate information. Special consideration will be given to the local knowledge used by rural farmers, too often neglected, but a key factor to their ability to cope with climate variability and change.An additional objective of this guide is to improve communication among the NMS staff, in particular, meteorologists and agrometeorologists and to encourage Agro-Pastoral Field School (APFS) trainers and facilitators to be more aware of [...]

The People’s Republic of China (China) has been one of FAO’s main partners in the promotion of South-South and triangular cooperation. In terms of cooperation among developing countries, China upholds the principles of equality and mutual trust, building equal partnerships with parity of ownership and responsibility, mutual benefit and win–win cooperation, which are highly valued by FAO. Together, FAO and China offer considerable development knowledge and solutions that are relevant to South-South exchanges. After more than two decades of increasing collaboration in supporting flows of technical assistance between developing countries, FAO and China established in 2009 the FAO-China South-South Cooperation [...]

A geographical indication (GI) is a label that applies to products with specific quality, reputation or other characteristics resulting from their geographical origin. These specific characteristics can be the result of natural or human factors. GIs are protected by intellectual property rights (IPR) according to the World Trade Organization agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Geneva Act. GIs represent a collective asset linked to local heritage and reputation. Also available in Arabic, Chinese, French and Russian.

This brief provides an overview of the potential of distributed ledger technologies to facilitate transactions in agricultural supply chains through enhanced traceability, efficiency, transparency and accountability.

This policy brief is based on the FAO (2018) report “Policy coherence for agricultural transformation in African least developed countries: Aligning agriculture and trade policymaking processes”. The report presents the results of the Multi-partner Programme Support Mechanism (FMM) Project on Trade related capacity development for food security and nutrition in Eastern and Southern Africa, implemented by FAO and focusing on four least developed countries in Africa: Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia.

Without rapid progress in reducing and eliminating hunger and malnutrition by 2030, the full range of Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved. We can advance faster if we work together. In its quest to achieve a Zero Hunger world, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) works in partnership with communities, governments, and organizations across Africa to address malnutrition, boost the productivity and resilience of small-scale farmers, share knowledge about innovative farming practices, and build sustainable food systems. FAO’s bold approach focuses on empowering women and employing youth, providing them with the skills and resources (land, capital, emerging technology) they need [...]