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FAO’s best-selling 2011 publication, Save and Grow, proposed a new paradigm of agriculture, one that is both highly productive and environmentally sustainable. This new book looks at the application of “Save and Grow” practices and technologies to production of the world’s key food security crops – maize, rice and wheat. With examples drawn from developing countries worldwide, it shows how eco-friendly farming systems are helping smallholder producers to boost cereal yields, improve their  incomes and livelihoods, conserve natural resources, reduce negative impacts on the environment, and build resilience to climate change. The book will be a valuable reference for policymakers [...]

FAO factsheet on FAO's role and response to the youth employment challenge in rural areas. The factsheet includes examples of FAO’s activities and tools to promote decent youth employment in agriculture and indicates countries where FAO is active.  

Pastoralists produce food in the world’s driest, coldest, hottest as well as mountainous environments, yet they are often misunderstood and marginalized. They not only sustain vibrant and culturally unique communities, but are also linked with many other people who depend on their activities. Pastoral production systems produce a variety of products and services from multiple sources in the ecosystem. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports pastoralists and agro-pastoralists worldwide in a wide range of areas to promote food security, resilient livelihoods, pastoral economies and healthy environments. This product is part of a broader series composed by several [...]

Forests play important provisioning and supporting roles in the livelihoods of rural households (Byron and Arnold, 1999, Sunderlin et al., 2005) and the majority of those who live in extreme poverty are reliant on forests for their livelihood. Products from non-cultivated ecosystems such as natural forests, woodlands, wetlands, lakes, rivers, and grasslands can be a significant income source for rural households providing energy, food, construction materials and medicines both for subsistence and cash uses. Beginning with seminal studies on environmental resource use (e.g. Cavendish, 2000) the contribution of forest and other environmental resources to household income accounts were found to [...]

Women play key roles in rural economies, where the fight against hunger and poverty is most pressing. They are also central to family food security and nutrition. However, compared to their male counterparts, rural women typically face multiple gender-based constraints – particularly in their access to productive resources (e.g. land, technologies, training and services) and economic opportunities (e.g. access to markets and decent employment) – which prevent them from becoming equally competitive economic players. Gender equality can be foster through practical policy measures. The Gender in Agricultural Policies Assessment Tool (GAPo) is a toolkit that FAO developed to support national [...]

Mobile phones have been shown (though not uniformly) to positively contribute in various ways to rural development, from reducing information asymmetry, improving functional networks, to increasing access to services and finance. Yet a digital gender divide exists. When contrasted with the fact that women compromise 43% of the worlds’ agricultural labor force, this digital gender divide can inhibit rural development. There is substantial exploration of the digital gender divide in the literature. Yet the answers to questions regarding differential access and use of information and communication technologies are mostly inconclusive. This study tries identify the information needs of the rural [...]

Agriculture and social protection are fundamentally linked in the context of rural livelihoods in Africa. Poor and food-insecure families depend primarily on agriculture and partly on non-farm income and private transfers for their livelihoods, and are the main target of social protection interventions (FAO, 2015). When embedded within a broader rural development framework, stronger coherence between agriculture and social protection interventions can assist in improving the welfare of poor smal l family farms by facilitating productive inclusion, improving risk-management capacities, and increasing agricultural productivity – all of which enable rural-based families to gradually move out of poverty and hunger (Tirivayi [...]

Fighting hunger is not only about producing more food. It also means protecting food sources from diseases that can spread across borders. The Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES), is a surveillance and early warning system established with the objective of preventing food chain emergencies caused by transboundary threats. These may be animal or plant pests and diseases or food safety threats and can have a great impact on food security and food safety. Threats to the food chain affect not only  food security livelihoods and human health, but also national economies and global markets. This is why surveillance, early detection, early [...]

Poverty is one of the biggest obstacles to human development and economic growth. About 2.1 billion people still live in poverty and 900 million are extreme poor. Most of them live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and rural livelihoods for their income and food security.

The five-year Peste des Petits Ruminant Global Eradication Programme (PPR-GEP) highlights the technical and policy tools foreseen as appropriate to lay the foundation for and commencement of PPR eradication by reducing the prevalence of PPR in currently infected countries. The programme will also develop capacity for non-infected countries to demonstrate the absence of PPR Virus leading towards official endorsement of PPR free status by the OIE. During its course, the programme will strengthen national Veterinary Service that are the key players in the successful implementation of the PPR GEP. When appropriate, the programme will also support reducing the prevalence of [...]