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Market information can play an extremely important role in promoting agricultural development, especially among small-scale producers. Sound market information can help to enhance transparency, competitiveness and the more equitable sharing of benefits among key players in the marketing system. An effective Market Information System or Service (MIS) can increase competitiveness, reduce information asymmetries and improve market efficiency. This Literature Review seeks to review all features relating to MIS development, with a particular focus on information on market prices and on the use of new technologies for price data collection and dissemination. It aims to identify the majority of the relevant [...]

This publication explains how international food safety standards are set through the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Food Standards Programme – the Codex Alimentarius Commission – and how these standards are applied in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) and on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement).Through the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius, members establish science-based, internationally agreed food standards.  The publication describes the two organizations, how they operate together, and how countries can and should engage to keep international food [...]

Unsustainable water use (over-drafted aquifers, seasonally dry rivers, disappearing lakes and wetlands) is a problem across the world. This is especially true in the NENA region, which includes many of the most water-short countries in the world. This review indicates that there are rather few examples of carefully documented impacts of hi-tech irrigation, while there are many examples of projects and programs that assume that water will be saved and productivity increased. The conclusion of this report is that restoring a balance between sustainable supply and consumption of water requires first physical control of the water resource by government or [...]

The food production and supply chain consumes about 30 percent of total end-use energy globally, and contributes to over 20 percent of total annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (excluding emissions or sinks from land use change). A growing worldwide population, changing diets and growing economic development will all serve to increase competition for land, water and energy resources – which already face problems of environmental degradation and, in some cases, scarcity. To address these challenges, agrifood systems at every scale, from the small family farm to the vertically integrated corporate farm level, will have to become more efficient by using [...]

The International Organisations Consortium for Measuring the Policy Environment for Agriculture aims to create a community of practice, to provide a harmonized and consolidated database, and to provide a forum for discussion aimed at raising the quality and coverage of the available measures. The goals of the consortium include maintaining the autonomy and ensuring the consistency of each International Organization’s (IO) role with its mandate, creating a collaborative approach for database, with a clear recognition of Intellectual Property Rights.

On 25 September 2015, the 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets – committing the international community to end poverty and hunger and achieve sustainable development between 2016 and 2030. Six months later, a global indicator framework for the SDGs – comprising 230 indicators - was identified to monitor the 169 targets and track progress, becoming the foundation of the SDGs’ accountability structure. The number of indicators - four times greater than for the MDGs - represents an immense challenge for countries. FAO [...]

Agriculture, deforestation and other land use account for roughly 25 percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (IPCC, 2014). When the share of industry related to agriculture is included, the agriculture sector is an even greater contributor to climate change. It is thus crucial to identify technologies and practices that ensure a high and sustainable level of agricultural production while reducing GHG emissions from the sector. This report pilots a methodology developed to identify and assess a number of climate technologies that can contribute to the mitigation of GHG emissions in a country’s agrifood sector. The analysis also suggests relevant policy areas that should be evaluated to incentivise the [...]

The report sheds some light on the nature of the challenges that agriculture and food systems are facing now and throughout the 21st century, and provides some insights as to what is at stake and what needs to be done. What emerges is that “business as usual” is no longer an option but calls for major transformations in agricultural systems, in rural economies and in how we manage our natural resources. The following complementary information is available: Overview Summary Infographic FAO's work on Global Perspectives Studies

This How2Guide for Bioenergy is designed to provide stakeholders from government, industry, and other bioenergy-related institutions with the methodology and tools required to successfully plan and implement a roadmap for bioenergy at the national or regional level. As a guide addressed to decision makers in developing, emerging and developed economies, the H2G.BIO does not attempt to cover every aspect of bioenergy conversion technology and deployment, or to be exhaustive in its reference to biomass resources and technologies at the country and regional levels. Rather, the aim is to provide a comprehensive list of steps and issues to be considered at [...]

The smallholder farmers' dataportrait is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers across the world.  It generates an image on how small family farmers in developing and emerging countries live their lives. It is about putting in numbers, the constraints they face, and the choices they make so that policies can be informed by evidence to meet the challenge of agricultural development. Currently, the data portrait provides information for fourteen countries.