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The paper investigates the basics of public stockholding, exploring the objectives of such programmes, the policy instruments used to achieve them, and their possible market impacts. It also synthesizes country experiences in implementing public stockholding programmes in different regions and presents the evolution of administered and international prices over the last decade. Finally, the paper highlights the main elements of the WTO negotiations on public stockholding for food security, and some of the issues that need to be resolved to help achieve consensus in this area.

The Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030 is a collaborative effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It brings together the commodity, policy and country expertise of both organisations as well as input from collaborating member countries to provide an annual assessment of the prospects for the coming decade of national, regional and global agricultural commodity markets. The publication consists of 11 Chapters; Chapter 1 covers agricultural and food markets; Chapter 2 provides regional outlooks and the remaining chapters are dedicated to individual commodities.Projections by commodity     Cereals     Oilseeds and [...]

The Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, at its Seventeenth Regular Session, requested its Secretary to prepare for review by the intergovernmental technical working groups on animal, aquatic, forest and plant genetic resources to produce an up-to-date survey of existing legislative, administrative and policy approaches, including best practices, for ABS for the different subsectors of GRFA and traditional knowledge associated with GRFA held by indigenous peoples and local communities, with the aim of identifying typical approaches and lessons learned from their implementation, as well as challenges and possible solutions.The current survey comprises a baseline desktop review of legislation, [...]

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) have cooperated over several decades to develop and implement the Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZ) modelling framework and databases. AEZ relies on well-established land evaluation principles to assess natural resources for finding suitable agricultural land utilization options. It identifies resource limitations and opportunities based on plant eco-physiological characteristics, climatic and edaphic requirements of crops and it uses these to evaluate suitability and production potentials for individual crop types under specific input and management conditions. Managing the constraints imposed by agro-ecological conditions and knowing what [...]

Achieving Food Security in the future while using water resources in a sustainable manner is a major challenge for us and the next generations. Agriculture is a key water user. A careful monitoring of water productivity in agriculture and exploring opportunities to increase it are required. But how can we monitor the performance of water use in agriculture? FAO has developed a publicly accessible near real time database using satellite data that allows monitoring of agricultural water productivity.

The purpose of this report is to assess the current implementation of forest and landscape restoration (FLR) in Africa. It presents the context for FLR on the African continent, highlights major FLR initiatives, and provides an overview of FLR in Africa at the start of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030). It identifies key challenges, opportunities, actors and processes, illustrated with some case studies. Data collection was both primary (interviews) and secondary (extensive desk research).The report contributes to tracking progress on the implementation of AFR100 and other FLR initiatives in Africa on the ground. It provides a baseline for [...]

Due to the economic dominance of the agriculture sector, Mali is extremely dependent on natural resources and also vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. The deterioration of ecosystems has strongly affected rural populations, resulting in a very poor performance in environmental governance. Gender inequalities are also present at all social levels and help create or exacerbate tensions between different social groups. In addition to the social tensions, the security situation in Mali is precarious due to the presence of non-state armed groups. The conflict analysis was carried out to take stock of the current situation regarding conflicts over natural [...]

In Burkina Faso, the exacerbation of conflicts over natural resources and the rapid development of insecurity are sources of major concern for both the public authorities and the populations. The report features the main findings of the conflict analysis that was carried out to: (i) take stock of conflicts over natural resources and other conflicts in rural areas; (ii) identify initiatives for conflict prevention and management; and (iii) formulate proposals to improve the effectiveness of conflict prevention and management mechanisms. The conflict analysis is one of the main activities implemented under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [...]

The Crop Sector Development Strategy for Eastern Africa 2021 - 2026 defines a series of goals and interventions agreed by representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture from the countries within the jurisdiction of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Subregional Office for Eastern Africa, as well as inputs from FAO representatives in the member countries, the East African Community Secretariat, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Secretariat, the Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa and the CGIAR centres.The Strategy presents a holistic approach to improving crop production and productivity through a unified approach. This should be [...]

This paper is the first in a series of ongoing and planned efforts to build on current knowledge and develop methodologies for estimating new components of food systems emissions, with a view to disseminate the information in FAOSTAT. It provides a methodology for estimating the GHG emissions associated with historic and current domestic food transport, in an effort to inform countries of the environmental impact of their food distribution systems.Our efforts respond to the call of the upcoming Food Systems Summit to characterize the role of food and agriculture to accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, they [...]