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Voluntary standards are rules, guidelines or characteristics about a product or a process. They are not mandatory regulations, but are used voluntarily by producers, processors, retailers and consumers. These voluntary standards are usually developed by private sector actors (e.g. firms or consortiums), representatives of civil society, or public sector agencies. Voluntary standards are part of a growing trend in global markets. As a result, FAO and member countries are being asked to respond adequately to the opportunities and challenges presented by business models that could foster both increased food security and better market access for small-scale producers. FAO reviewed the current evidence of the impact of voluntary [...]

Conservation Agriculture is actually applied on about 10% of the world’s cropland and adoption is growing fast. However, it is not growing fast enough to face the challenges ahead, such as the need to eradicate hunger and food insecurity for a growing population and to address the threats of climate change, land and environmental degradation, resource scarcity and increasing cost of food, production inputs and energy. For “sustainable intensification” strategy as being implemented through Conservation Agriculture to spread faster, it needs not only the accurate application of the concept and principles, but also supportive policies that can facilitate adoption of [...]

This report aims to provide a conceptual framework to address food security under conditions of water scarcity in agriculture. It has been prepared by a team of FAO staff and consultants in the framework of the project `Coping with water scarcity: the role of agriculture?, and has been discussed at an Expert Consultation meeting organized in FAO, Rome in December 2009 on the same subject. It was subsequently edited and revised, taking account of discussions in the Expert Consultation and materia ls presented to the meeting. The document offers views on the conceptual framework on which FAO's water scarcity programme [...]

This report aims to provide a conceptual framework to address food security under conditions of water scarcity in agriculture. It has been prepared by a team of FAO staff and consultants in the framework of the project `Coping with water scarcity: the role of agriculture?, and has been discussed at an Expert Consultation meeting organized in FAO, Rome in December 2009 on the same subject. It was subsequently edited and revised, taking account of discussions in the Expert Consultation and materia ls presented to the meeting. The document offers views on the conceptual framework on which FAO's water scarcity programme [...]

This Module is the third in a series of four that address capacity development competencies in FAO. It is intended to enhance FAO’s practices in designing, developing, delivering and evaluating its activities in support of learning in Member Countries, while ensuring that learning leads to sustainable capacity development.  Annex 2 has a list of toolboxes for users.

The purpose of the passport is to support them in mainstreaming a gender perspective during planning, implementation and management of agricultural water management projects and programmes. This implies assessing the implications of any intervention on women and men, girls and boys, through a participatory approach, while designing gender sensitive interventions. The expected outcome is improved performance of water management projects and systems, while strengthening the position of rural women or other disadvantaged groups. The passport is designed to be a rapid appraisal tool to identify the main gender-related problems and gaps that require attention during the design, implementation and monitoring of a project or programme. If the project is at the planning [...]

The EAF Toolbox is aimed at national and local fisheries management authorities, including fishery managers, scientists and stakeholders looking for practical solutions they can apply given their circumstances and resources. This document represents a subset of the web-based version.

This publication is the outcome of a study carried out in 2009 documenting information service models in rural areas in China. It builds upon a previous study carried out in 2003.  The report describes four information service models and provides an update of progress made in the six years from 2003 to 2009.  The impacts of information services in improving the lives of farmers is analysed, as well as the key constraints to further development and expansion of information services to rural areas . The report concludes with key issues that need to be addressed to move forward in strengthening [...]

New information and knowledge are critical inputs for the practice of agriculture the world over. This is especially true for resource-poor farmers living in rural areas in Asia. Yet most of these farmers are not only resource poor but also information poor. Mobile technology holds great promise in delivering information to resource-poor farmers and as a consequence to improving their livelihoods. The number of mobile connections is presently six billion and growing. There are many examples of mobile-based interventions in agriculture, health, education and rural livelihood projects in Asia. Of these, however, few have moved from the pilot phase to [...]

This document offers a methodological introduction to Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) for analysing socio-economic impact of agricultural and rural development policies. Firstly, the concept and the structure of an SAM are presented. Next, the concept of policy "instrument" and "objective" variables are introduced and applied for SAM-based policy impact analysis. The module concludes by discussing the multipliers matrix as an instrument for analysing policy impact and presenting some examples. This paper is part of the FAO Policy series: EASYPol-Resources for policy making (in agriculture, rural development and food security). You can find other EASYPol series' resources in the Resources section of [...]