FAO.org

Between 2013 and 2015, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) undertook a survey of innovative approaches that enable markets to act as incentives in the transition towards sustainable agriculture in developing countries. Through a competitive selection process, 15 cases from around the world provide insights into how small-scale initiatives that use sustainable production practices are supported by market demand, and create innovations in the institutions that govern sustainable practices and market exchanges. These cases respond to both local and distant consumers’ concerns about the quality of the [...]

El presente estudio revisa las tendencias en la inversión y financiamiento rural y, particularmente, en el sector agropecuario de la región latinoamericana con el fin de ofrecer una perspectiva crítica de dónde están las principales limitantes para lograr sistemas financieros rurales más inclusivos y proponer áreas de intervención pública y privada que puedan favorecer dicho objetivo, de acuerdo con la evidencia recopilada de experiencias innovadoras en varios de los países de la región. Para ello, este estudio pretende analizar conjuntamente las tendencias en los mercados agropecuarios y las tendencias en los mercados financieros rurales para luego mostrar vínculos relevantes para el [...]

Over 700 thousand people lost their lives as a result of disasters between 2005 and 2015. Approximately 23 million were made homeless. The total economic loss is estimated at more than US $1.3 trillion. Stephan Baas, Strategic Advisor of the FAO Resilience Management Team together Nina Koeksalan, Climate Change Officer describe the importance of reducing risks and strengthening resilience for improved food security and nutrition in rural communities particularly vulnerable to natural hazards and disasters. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy messages. This video forms part of a series of policy and governance videos being produced by [...]

The LEAP (Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance) Partnership is a multi-stakeholder initiative that is committed to improving the environmental performance of livestock supply chains, whilst ensuring its economic and social viability.  Farmers, consumers and other livestock stakeholders are increasingly in need of more information about the environmental performance and the sustainability of livestock supply chains. Although a wide range of environmental assessment methods have been developed, there is a need for comparative and standardized indicators in order to switch focus of dialogue with stakeholders from methodological issues to improvement measures.  LEAP develops comprehensive guidance and methodology for understanding the environmental performance of [...]

How have governments responded to the 2007/08 food crisis and how has their approach evolved since then? Which measures have gained the attention of national policy makers in recent years? What are the emerging issues in the context of national food security policy, and which areas of investigation should be considered further? The new series of country fact sheets launched by FAPDA attempt to answer these questions presenting key food and agriculture policy trends since the 2007/08 food security crisis. FAPDA country fact sheets are prepared in collaboration with national partners and FAO country and regional offices. Each fact sheet provides a [...]

Ensuring fairer access to land for Kenyan pastoralist communities Rapid population growth in Kenya has led to increased demand and competition for land and the goods and services associated with it. With research showing that effective control of land has great influence on people’s capacity to construct livelihoods, overcome poverty and malnutrition and improve food and nutrition security, the project was implemented to support the Government of Kenya in its efforts to provide more equitable access to land resources for communities in two pilot areas of the country, Tana River and Turkana counties. This was to be achieved using existing national and global [...]

Strengthening livelihoods through control of Peste des Petits Ruminants With almost 70 percent of the global sheep and goat population at risk of Pestedes PetitsRuminants (PPR) -Sheep and Goat Plague, significant efforts are needed to consolidate the livelihoods, nutrition and food security of millions of livestock holders, in particular in Asia and Africa. In this context, the project contributed to filling gaps in existing strategies for control of the disease and supported the formulation of new ones in West Africa, Central Africa, North Africa and Central Asia. It also reviewed and updated the subregionalstrategy for Southeast Asia. Project duration: 01/01/2015  - 01/12/2016 [...]

Categorizing livestock breeds and their production systems in Liberia The project conducted a comprehensive survey and characterization of the genetic resources and their production systems in Liberia, which is crucial to develop a national plan for animal genetic resources management aimed at increasing domestic livestock production to meet domestic demand and implementing sustainable livestock research and development plans. Project duration: 01/08/2014  - 01/12/2016

MOVING TOWARDS HUNGER-FREE PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING COUNTRIES The project worked towards strengthening national capacities to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in the nations making up the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. It brought together leading civil society organizations, the private sector, academic institutions and parliamentarians from the countries involved, as well as fostering cooperation between member states to advance the national implementation of the strategy. The benefits were to be felt deep within communities, as with school feeding programmesin Cabo Verde and São Tomé e Príncipe and family farming in Timor-Leste and Angola. Project duration: 03/02/2014  - 03/10/2016

This Annual Report for 2016 provides detailed information on the FFF work in the ten partner countries and at regional and global levels in 2016. Updates on communications, knowledge generation, exchange visits and the M&L system are provided along with a short discussion of the Mid-term Evaluation (MTE) and the broad outlines of the Phase II. The MTE in August 2016 found that FFF was well on track to meeting the outcomes and impacts projected; and was doing this in a very efficient manner – in terms of the quality of delivery, the coordination of the implementing partners, and the [...]