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Persistent underinvestment in agriculture in developing countries can be attributed to many issues including: climate risks, fragmented input and service markets, seasonal and long-term financing requirements, weak property rights, and market-distorting political interventions. However, the rapid rise in world demand for agricultural products provides incentives for local actors to develop innovative financial and risk management mechanisms. Commercial investors are starting to recognize agribusiness as a promising sector because of the upwards trend in food markets. As most commercial investors focus solely on financial returns, public incentives and support are required to make investments more inclusive and to create business linkages [...]

Contract farming, broadly understood as agricultural production and marketing carried out under a previous agreement between producers and their buyers, supports the production of a wide range of agricultural commodities and its use is growing in many countries. Mindful of the importance of enhancing knowledge and awareness of the legal regime applicable to contract farming operations, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have prepared this UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide on Contract Farming. The Guide is a useful tool and [...]

Global trade in agricultural and food products has grown rapidly in recent decades, with countries becoming more engaged in this trade, whether as exporters or importers. This trend is expected to continue over the coming decades. As a consequence, trade will play an increasingly important role in influencing the extent and nature of food security across all regions of the globe. The challenge has therefore become one of ensuring that the expansion of agricultural trade works for, and not against, the elimination of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. This edition of The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets aims to reduce [...]

A substantial proportion of the food produced for human consumption is lost through decreases in its quantity or quality, or wasted through being discarded when still fit for consumption. Food losses and waste have negative impacts on the environment, natural resource sustainability, and food and nutrition security. They also represent a loss of economic value for actors in the food supply chain. Value addition through processing and preservation is one of the avenues for reducing food loss and mitigating its negative effects. A wide range of challenges limit value addition by small and medium agro- industries in developing countries. These [...]

Women play a critical role in every link of the value chain in small-scale fisheries, although their best-known roles are in processing and marketing of fish and other fishery products. This perception of the highly gender-segregated division of labour (men fishing / women processing) has shaped the generalized approach in supporting development initiatives for small-scale fisheries. More often than not, this approach targets men as fishers, and women as processors and marketers of fishery products. However, this generalization has also made fisheries governance blind to women’s other valuable inputs to the sector. In fact, their roles can and should go [...]

In a similar but wider scope than the previous special issue produced in 2011 during the 4th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV), this updated Special Issue of Agriculture and Food Security Statistics now includes information not only for of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), but also for all Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The current issue presents a compilation of up-to-date available agricultural statistics covering th e general nature of the agricultural sector in LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS ranging across the crops, livestock, forest and fisheries sub-sectors. Basic data and indicators covering [...]

In Brazil, the government has successfully adopted an integrated approach for combating malnutrition and hunger. Under the well-known Zero Hunger strategy (“Fome Zero”) and subsequent Brazil Without Misery plan (“Brasil Sem Miséria”), innovative social programmes were launched to target more poor women and children. 

Innovative and integrated actions to modernize and facilitate the transformation from subsistence to commercial agriculture are foremost on Ethiopia’s agenda. Initiatives to address soil depletion with the end goal of sustainably increasing productivity, building resilience in efforts to promote food sufficiency of vulnerable households, and tapping livestock sector potential to generate foreign exchange, are just three of the key policy trends that have emerged over the 2007─2013 period in Ethiopia. For more country policy briefs by FAPDA please see here.

Burkina Faso has succeeded in achieving the Maputo Declaration target by allocating at least 10 percent of the national budget to agriculture almost every year since 2003. Most of these expenditures have been allocated to support the production of cotton, one of the country’s main exports, through input subsidies and minimum prices to producers. However, a large portion of the country’s agricultural investments as well as social safety net programmes remain heavily dependent on donor funding. For more country policy briefs by FAPDA please see here.

In Cambodia, the government has given increasing priority to commercial rice production by promoting higher yield seeds and expanding irrigation and post production infrastructure. Relevant reforms have been adopted in favour of the fisheries sector. Child malnutrition remains a critical development challenge for the country despite the enhancement of nutritional policies and programmes over the past few years. For more country policy briefs by FAPDA please see here.