FAO.org

Agricultural production relies heavily on migrant labour across geographies and production systems, from large-scale plantations growing food crops for global supply chains to small-scale pastoralist families following their herds to new pastures depending on seasons. Much of the migration is seasonal, filling peak labour demands, such as during harvest. Hence, stable agri-food systems that can contribute to fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 on zero hunger are intrinsically intertwined with migrant workers’ lives and working conditions.While migration can provide families with new opportunities, it can also pose challenges to children migrating with their parents or left behind. Seasonal agricultural migration [...]

The action plan for the implementation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations strategy on mainstreaming biodiversity across agricultural sectors was approved at the 166th FAO Council in 2021 in view of preparations for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.This action plan is based on and serves the purpose of operationalizing the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors (Strategy) and is intended to strengthen the work of FAO and its partners, in consultation with Members, to mainstream biodiversity across agricultural sectors.

In response to a growing demand for high-quality and internationally-comparable statistics, FAO develops, implements and promotes methods and standards to guide national data producers in generating and using sound statistics. In particular, the Organization is committed to provide national statistical systems with internationally recognized definitions, concepts and classifications as well as methodological guidance for the production of high quality statistics related to food and agriculture. Find all of FAO's methods and standards - here. Find the most recently published methods and standards under "Download PDF".

INFOODS is the International Network of Food Data Systems. It was established in 1984. It is a worldwide network of food composition experts aiming to improve the quality, availability, reliability and use of food composition data. INFOODS also stands as a forum through which international harmonization and support for food composition activities can be achieved and advocated. INFOODS is organized into several regional data centers with a global coordinator. In this context, INFOODS and FAO provide guidelines, standards, compilation tools, databases, capacity development tools, policy advice, advocacy tools, technical assistance at country level; and they represent a fora to link [...]

Achieving Food Security in the future while using water resources in a sustainable manner is a major challenge for us and the next generations. Agriculture is a key water user. A careful monitoring of water productivity in agriculture and exploring opportunities to increase it are required. But how can we monitor the performance of water use in agriculture? FAO has developed a publicly accessible near real time database using satellite data that allows monitoring of agricultural water productivity.

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) are essential to sustainable agriculture and food security.  They are the raw materials to meet the current and future needs of crop improvement and adaptation programmes. It is therefore very important to conserve and sustainably use them.WIEWS is the information system used by FAO for the preparation of periodic, country-driven global assessments of the status of conservation and use of PGRFA. WIEWS also monitors, on the basis of country reports, the implementation of the Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, adopted in 2011. National Focal [...]

AIDmonitor gathers information from diverse databases to help users analyze Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows with a focus on Food Security, Nutrition, Agriculture and Rural Development, determine priorities for assistance and formulate resource mobilization strategies. AIDmonitor takes into account only commitments, without including negative (aggregate) re-allocations to the donor country. This might generate a discrepancy with the ODA CRS on the total value for donor, without influencing any other result.

FAO’s Statistical Capacity Assessment survey for SDG Indicators provides insights about member countries' national statistical systems in regard to their capacity to monitor and report the 21 SDG indicators under FAO custodianship. Details on the assessment conducted by FAO in 2018/19 and the resulting country profiles can be found here.

The Food and Agriculture Microdata (FAM) Catalogue provides an inventory of datasets collected through farm and household surveys which contain information related to agriculture, food security,  and nutrition. The FAM catalogue is populated by datasets which are collected directly by FAO and datasets whose collection are supported in some way by FAO. Our aim is to be a one-stop-shop containing metadata on all agricultural censuses and surveys which are publically available as well as provide direct access and/or links to the microdata.FAM is continuously updated as new datasets from FAO and member countries become available. Organizations which collect relevant data [...]

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC) led a land-use data collection and analysis between 2018 and 2020. With the support of the Panafrican Agency of the Great Green Wall (GGW), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and 30 African countries, FAO and the AUC coordinated the data collection operation on a scale unseen before in agriculture, environment, and land use. The Africa Open D.E.A.L (Data for Environment, Agriculture and Land) initiative has made Africa the first continent to complete the collection of accurate, comprehensive, and harmonized digital land use and [...]