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The Agricultural Outlook 2020-2029 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. This year's edition features a short scenario on COVID-19 and its impact on food and agriculture.

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 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.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina wheat is a key staple, yet domestic production is small and low quality. Current policy environment tends to disadvantage wheat producers and makes them vulnerable in face of changing climate. Government interventions should focus on improving competitiveness of wheat producers and building resilience to climate change. Key reforms should encompass land consolidation, on-farm investments, access to high quality inputs and equipment, extension services and access to risk management tools. Find more FAO Agricultural Development Economics Policy Briefs here

Over the last 20 years, the Government of Uganda has implemented several policies to promote investments in commercial forest plantations. As a result of these policy efforts, the supply of commercially produced pine is set to increase dramatically over the next few years. This brief summarizes a cost-benefir analysis based on interviews carried out in July 2019. The findings highlights a significant challenge facing the sector. Without reforms to the current market situation in the country, plantation owners are unlikely to replant pine once existing trees are harvested. The Government of Uganda now should consider implementing policies to sustain the sector, [...]

El estudio “Desafíos de la producción y comercialización de algodón orgánico en Perú: Aprendizajes de agricultores familiares de Chincha y Cañete” presenta la experiencia que duró casi una década, del 2000 al 2009, de un grupo de agricultores familiares, productores de algodón de los valles de Cañete y Chincha, ubicados en la costa central de Perú, que se embarcaron en una iniciativa de hacer la transición del sistema convencional al sistema orgánico de producción de algodón. El objetivo principal de este estudio ha sido identificar los aprendizajes sacados de esta experiencia desde la perspectiva de los propios agricultores que de [...]

In recent years, along with the growing recognition of the rural gender gap in financial access as a key constraint to rural development, research has focused increasingly more towards analysing in depth the financial habits and patterns followed by women in rural areas, in order to produce observations and insights that could foster a more gender-sensitive policy approach towards financial inclusion.In line with this trend, this paper sets to explore the financial habits and constraints of rural women in two Sub-Saharan African countries (Mozambique, Tanzania), both at country and village level, with the objective of answering how, and why, they [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major economic shock, throwing into question the resilience of the agrifood sector at this stage, particularly in developing countries where self-employed, wage and informal workers are threatened by food supply chain disruptions, limitations on movement and trade restrictions. Even before the crisis, small and medium agribusinesses were often considered to be credit-constrained and extremely vulnerable to shocks. Reaching out to this underserved segment has been one of the objectives driving the development of blended finance funds and facilities in the agrifood sector. While many operators will be focusing on managing their portfolio through these turbulent [...]

This policy brief aims to provide useful information for policymakers and other stakeholders in developing countries who are in the process of designing COVID-19 response programmes addressing the needs of agrifood and rural sectors through dedicated rural finance instruments and broader financial sector involvement. The brief discusses emerging patterns on how countries are currently responding to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. It looks at a number of innovations, good practices and policy options that emerge as most relevant for developing country contexts. See the full list of policy briefs related to COVID-19