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This brief summarizes the findings of the FAO Agricultural Development Economics Technical Study No. 16 “Productive public investment in agriculture for economic recovery with rural well-being: an analysis of prospective scenarios for Uganda”. It highlights how, through a series of scenarios, public investments promoting agricultural productivity in Uganda could drive growth in agrifood production, with favourable impacts on the economy, on well-being and on poverty, especially in rural areas. It also provides important information about the priorities of Uganda’s National Development Plan (NDP) III and vision for agriculture, as well as new priorities to be considered for enabling economic recovery [...]

Los efectos de la crisis generada por la pandemia del coronavirus siguen evolucionando y golpeando con fuerza a nuestras sociedades. En el caso de América Latina y El Caribe (ALC), la tenencia de la tierra se encuentra en el corazón de su desarrollo; este tema como ningún otro ha provocado guerras, desplazamientos, conflictos sociales, corrupción, hambre y pobreza. Particularmente, la extrema desigualdad en el acceso y control de la tierra es uno de los grandes problemas sin resolver en ALC; es al mismo tiempo causa y consecuencia de estructuras sociales enormemente polarizadas que han alimentado y siguen alimentando las crisis políticas [...]

Acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 20 countries or situations – hunger hotspots – in the next months. Organized violence or conflict remain the primary drivers, followed by weather extremes and climate variability. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt economies. High food prices and low household purchasing power are major economic concerns for food insecurity rising. The report provides country-specific recommendations on priorities for emergency response and anticipatory action to address existing humanitarian needs and ensure short-term protective interventions before new needs materialize.

Report on how the first wave of COVID-19 impacted on smallholder farmers in northern Shan State in Myanmar. The study examines the interactions of reduced border trade, remittances and contracted labour markets on household food security, nutrition and land tenure. In turn, tenure insecurity in rural areas may deepen the effects of COVID-19, as most rural people struggle to sustain their livelihoods through access to land and other natural resources. This is relevant as many ethnic groups in northern Shan State continue to manage their land through customary tenure systems that are not fully recognized by state authorities.See the full [...]

Seasonal migration has been greatly affected by COVID-19 mobility restrictions. More specifically, migrant workers engaged in seasonal employment have suffered an immense blow as a result of the enforcement of lockdown measures, which further increased the uncertainty of their livelihoods and of the welfare and economic security of their households in their countries of origin. This brief has been prepared as part of the work on addressing migration-related issues across the region of Europe and Central Asia, including the impact of COVID-19 on seasonal migration. The brief is reviewing the situation in the countries of the region, where seasonal migration [...]

In recent years, various factors have diverted the world off the path to eradicating hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this trend. Latin America and the Caribbean is no exception. This edition of the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2021: Statistics and Trends reveals a bleak scenario for the future. In 2020, 59.7 million people in the region suffered from hunger, and between 2019 and 2020 the prevalence of hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 2 percentage points. Much of this can be explained by [...]

Africa is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets to end hunger and ensure access by all people to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round, and to end all forms of malnutrition. The most recent estimates show that 281.6 million people on the continent, over one-fifth of the population, faced hunger in 2020, which is 46.3 million more than in 2019. This deterioration continues a trend that started in 2014, after a prolonged period of improving food security. In addition to hunger, millions of Africans suffer from widespread micronutrient deficiencies, while overweight and [...]

Parliamentarians from around 50 countries and nine parliamentary networks gathered in the context of the Virtual Parliamentary Dialogues on Food Security and Nutrition in the time of COVID-19. From March to September 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), pledged to put food security and nutrition at the forefront of national, regional, and global agendas and to take proactive steps to address the consequences of the pandemic. In their legislative, budgetary, and oversight responsibilities, parliaments are strategically positioned to strengthen food security, nutrition, and inclusion [...]

Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted unprecedentedly as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. While the primary sector has relatively been the most resilient, the agriculture sector lacks sufficiently strong productive dynamism and has high rates of informal work and low wages. Investing more in the sector's productive infrastructure would help accelerate economic recovery while improving people’s well-being. A public investment policy should be developed on the basis of evidence, such as that provided in this study. In 21 prospective scenarios that simulate the allocation of additional public investment in productive infrastructure across subsectors of agriculture, equivalent to 0.25 percent of [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of agri-food systems to shocks and stresses and led to increased global food insecurity and malnutrition. Action is needed to make agri-food systems more resilient, efficient, sustainable and inclusive.The State of Food and Agriculture 2021 presents country-level indicators of the resilience of agri-food systems. The indicators measure the robustness of primary production and food availability, as well as physical and economic access to food. They can thus help assess the capacity of national agri-food systems to absorb shocks and stresses, a key aspect of resilience.The report analyses the vulnerabilities of food supply chains and [...]