Results
Report
2011
The Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
The Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was adopted by the FAO Council at its 143rd Session in 2011. It updates the Global Plan of Action for Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources which was adopted at the Fourth International Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources held in Leipzig in 1996.
The Second Global Plan of Action addresses new challenges, such as climate change and food insecurity, as well as novel opportunities, including information, communication and molecular methodologies. It contains 18 priority activities organized in four main groups: In situ conservation and [...]
Data and statistics
2011
Food and Agricultural Policy Decision Analysis (FAPDA Web-based Tool)
The FAPDA web-based tool is one of the major components of FAPDA activities.
The tool was developed in 2011 with the support of the Government of the Kingdom of Spain so as to provide an electronic repository for food and agriculture policy decisions.
The aim is to serve all stakeholders such as governments, development partners, regional economic organizations, civil society organizations, researchers, policy makers and the private sector.
Between 2008 and 2016, more than 9000 policy decisions have been gathered and then consolidated on this web-based tool which allows for the identification of policy trends and the analysis of policy mixes and [...]
Issue paper
2011
Investigating Policy Processes: The Governance Analytical Framework (GAF)
Societies develop ways of making decisions regarding collective problems, thereby creating norms, rules, and institutions; this is what governance is about. In policy research, governance has become an important focus of attention; but debates show a lack of clarity at the conceptual level and a confusion between the use of the concept for prescriptive and analytical purposes. The present article is based on the hypothesis that using a clarified, non-normative governance perspective in policy research can contribute to an improved understanding of political processes, including formal and unrecognised ones, those embedded in larger and smaller social systems, as well as [...]
Case study
2011
Food and Agricultural Policy Trends After the 2008 Food Security Crisis Renewed Attention to Agricultural Development. EASYPol Series 125
Published under the The Food and Agriculture Policy Decision Analysis (FAPDA) project, this paper reviews the policy decisions taken from October 2008 to mid 2010. It aims to analyze the policy trends during the period that followed the peak of the 2008 Food Security Crisis. It seeks to identify possible changes in the policy orientation adopted by selected FAO member countries.
This paper aspires to answer to the question raised as the result of the 2009 FAO publication on "Country Responses to the Food Security Crisis" which had found quite deep changes in the orientation of policies put in place by [...]
Report
2011
The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11: Women in Agriculture. Closing the Gender Gap for Development
Women make significant contributions to the rural economy in all developing country regions. Their roles differ across regions, yet they consistently have less access than men to the resources and opportunities they need to be more productive. Increasing women’s access to land, livestock, education, financial services, extension, technology and rural employment would boost their productivity and generate gains in terms of agricultural production, food security, economic growth and social welfare. Closing the gender gap in agricultural inputs alone could lift 100–150 million people out of hunger.
No blueprint exists for closing the gender gap, but some basic principles are universal: governments, [...]
Issue paper
2011
Rural Women’s Access to Financial Services: Credit, Savings and Insurance. ESA Working Paper No. 11-07
This paper reviews rural women’s access to financial services, a key factor of successful rural development strategies. Designing appropriate financial products for women to be able to save, borrow and insure is essential to strengthen women’s role as producers and widen the economic opportunities available to them. For this purpose it is essential to understand how context-specific legal rights, social norms, family responsibilities and women’s access to and control over other resources shape their need for capital and their ability to obtain it. The paper argues that it is important that development strategies that aim to boost rural women’s productive [...]
Issue paper
2011
Payments for Ecosystem Services and Food Security
The report examines: the role of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) in agriculture; the relevance of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) agri-environmental measures for PES; opportunities and gaps in PES implementation and key areas for further investigation; cost-effective targeting of PES; social and cultural drivers behind the success of PES; landscape labelling approaches to PES through bundling services, products and stewards; enabling conditions and complementary legislative tools; and PES within the context of a green economy.
The report includes case studies on: PES and eco-certification in Kenya; geographic indication certification in Ukraine; PES in Tanzania; PES and rubber [...]
Tool
2011
Save and Grow. A Policymaker’s Guide to the Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Crop Production
With the publication of Save and Grow in 2011, FAO proposed a new paradigm of intensive crop production, one that is both highly productive and environmentally sustainable.
Save and Grow calls for “greening” the Green Revolution through an ecosystem approach that draws on nature’s contributions to crop growth, such as soil organic matter, water flow regulation, pollination and bio-control of insect pests and diseases.
This third reprint of Save and Grow comes following the Rio+20 Conference in June 2012 and the launch of the Zero Hunger Challenge by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. The challenge has five elements: guarantee year-round access to adequate food, end stunting in children, double small [...]
Report
2011
The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture. Managing Systems at Risk
The State of Land and Water Resources (SOLAW) is FAO's first flagship publication on the global status of land and water resources. It is an 'advocacy' report, to be published every 3 to 5 years, and targeted at senior level decision makers in agriculture as well as in other sectors. SOLAW is aimed at sensitizing its target audience on the status of land resources at global and regional levels and FAO's viewpoint on appropriate recommendations for policy formulation. SOLAW focuses on these key dimensions of analysis: (i) quantity, quality of land and water resources (ii) the rate of use and [...]
Report
2010
The wealth of waste. The economics of wastewater use in agriculture. FAO Water Reports 35
The use of reclaimed water in agriculture is an option that is increasingly being investigated and taken up in regions with water scarcity, growing urban populations and growing demand for irrigation water. This report addresses the economic and financial issues and the methodology and procedures involved in the analysis of water recycling projects.