FAO.org

The AGRISurvey programme is a country-led initiative aimed at strengthening countries’ agricultural surveys systems and promoting access to agricultural statistics. The programme supports countries in enhancing evidence-based decision making at national level and in monitoring the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators, particularly those related to agriculture. The AGRISurvey programme was launched in 2017 and ended in 2021. Activities continue under the 50x2030 Initiative to Close the Agricultural Data Gap.This document presents the success stories and lessons learned from the implementation of the programme in countries and accompanies the release of the final project report.

This brochure illustrates the key achievements of the Global Soil Partnership over the past decade which has become an internationally recognized mechanism composed of 194 FAO Members and over 500 partners committed to sustainable soil management. Its mandate is to improve and maintain the health of at least 50 percent of the world’s soils by 2030 and and guarantee healthy and productive soils.

The Agricultural Outlook 2022-2031 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. The publication consists of 11 Chapters; Chapter 1 covers agricultural and food markets; Chapter 2 provides regional outlooks and the remaining chapters are dedicated to individual commodities.

The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2022 (SOCO 2022) discusses how trade policies, based on both multilateral and regional approaches, can address today’s challenges for sustainable development. Trade policies in food and agriculture should aim to safeguard global food security, address the trade-offs between economic and environmental objectives, and strengthen the resilience of the global agrifood system to shocks, such as conflicts, pandemics and extreme weather. The report discusses the geography of trade, analysing food and agricultural trade and its patterns across countries and regions, its drivers and the trade policy environment. Comparative advantage, trade policies and trade costs shape the [...]

The In Brief version of the FAO flagship publication, the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022, contains the key messages and main points from the publication and is aimed at the media, policy makers and a more general public.The following complementary information is available:See the interactive storyRead the full report

This year’s report should dispel any lingering doubts that the world is moving backwards in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. We are now only eight years away from 2030, but the distance to reach many of the SDG 2 targets is growing wider each year. There are indeed efforts to make progress towards SDG 2, yet they are proving insufficient in the face of a more challenging and uncertain context. The intensification of the major drivers behind recent food insecurity and malnutrition trends (i.e. conflict, climate extremes and economic shocks) combined with [...]

Genetically modified (GM) crops are a new addition to crop varieties developed through traditional methods such as breeding, selection and mutation. Given their novelty, there are safety concerns among the public, scientists, and regulators, although the benefits outweigh the risks. Among the potential risks are pests becoming resistant, crops gaining weediness and GM foods posing safety issues to both human and animals and these are studied extensively. This has resulted in science-based risk assessment and management that safeguard safety to humans, animals and environment. We can be rest assured that GM crops that are approved are safe and continuous monitoring is [...]

Food and Agricultural Organization’s Integrated Country Approach for boosting decent jobs for youth in agrifood systems carried out a digital readiness assessment of youth in agribusiness in partnership with the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation and youth-led organizations in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.Over 360 young male and female entrepreneurs engaged through an online survey and virtual focus group discussions that generated insights on their interaction with digital technologies, either as entrepreneurs, service providers, or members of youth organizations.This summary note presents key findings on the following topics: agribusiness information flows, youth digital access and preferences, information technology use for business including [...]

The Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme is a leading policy support initiative at FAO that works with countries in Africa to strategically prioritize, reform and implement policies on food and agriculture.By monitoring and analysing public budgets and trade and market policies, MAFAP guides governments to repurpose their agricultural support to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems. It also collaborates with policymakers to identify priorities for policy and investment reforms in key commodity value chains and supports implementing policy changes so that agrifood systems can deliver affordable healthy diets to all and inclusive markets for farmers.

Food security means that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Food safety is interlinked with and essential to achieving food security.In times of food insecurity, humanitarian relief in the form of food aid is often distributed by specialized organizations, such as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Under conditions of food assistance there are food safety considerations that must be taken in account so as to carefully evaluate the impact on food availability while [...]