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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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Les femmes participent de manière considérable à l’économie rurale dans toutes les régions en développement. Si les rôles qu’elles assument sont différents selon les régions, on observe toutefois partout qu’elles ont un accès plus restreint que les hommes aux ressources et aux débouchés qui leur permettraient d’être plus productives. Un meilleur accès des femmes à la terre, aux animaux d’élevage, à l’instruction, aux services financiers et de vulgarisation, aux technologies et au marché de l’emploi rural se traduirait par une nette augmentation de leur productivité et par une amélioration de la production agricole, de la sécurité alimentaire, de la croissance économique et du bien-être [...]

Le modèle actuel d’intensification de la production ne permet pas de relever les défis du nouveau millénaire. Il va falloir apprendre à produir plus avec moins. Le présent ouvrage presente un nouveau modèle: l’intensification durable des cultures, qui permet d’accroître la production sur une même superficie tout en préservant les ressources, en réduisant l’impact négatif sur l’environnement et en améliorant le capital natural et le flux des services environnementaux.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

FAO - in partnership with the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Ministry of Youth and Sport, Youth Development Association and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) - has recently published a case study report on “Promoting Employment and Entrepreneurship for Vulnerable Youths in West Bank and Gaza Strip” Youth in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) face enormous challenges related to occupation, conflict, deep rural poverty, food insecurity and lack of extracurricular activities. Israeli closure policies, the construction of the Separation Wall, land confiscation, limited access to [...]

Chronic youth underemployment and poverty can be attributed to young people’s limited access to skills development opportunities. To address this challenge, FAO has developed the Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) methodology. JFFLS is an innovative approach that trains vulnerable rural youth in the agricultural, business and life skills needed to earn a decent living, and to become more productive and active members of their communities. This 16-module training material help to teach vulnerable children and young people about farming and how to take care of themselves.