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Agriculture, deforestation and other land use account for roughly 25 percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (IPCC, 2014). When the share of industry related to agriculture is included, the agriculture sector is an even greater contributor to climate change. It is thus crucial to identify technologies and practices that ensure a high and sustainable level of agricultural production while reducing GHG emissions from the sector. This report pilots a methodology developed to identify and assess a number of climate technologies that can contribute to the mitigation of GHG emissions in a country’s agrifood sector. The analysis also suggests relevant policy areas that should be evaluated to incentivise the [...]

The present study is a gender assessment of the dairy value chain in selected sites in Ethiopia: North Shoa Shewa (Degem woreda), East Gojam (Dejen woreda) and Gamu Gofa Arba Minch (Arba Minch Zuria woreda). It relies on evidence gathered through fieldwork complemented by a review of specialized background documentation. The findings confirm that women’s empowerment is vital for sustainable dairy value chain development and that projects supporting dairy production need to increase their efforts to be gender inclusive. The study provides country-specific recommendations for Ethiopia, which also feed into a more general knowledge base on how to develop gender-sensitive dairy value chains.

Fighting hunger is not only about producing more food. It also means protecting food sources from diseases that can spread across borders. The Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES), is a surveillance and early warning system established with the objective of preventing food chain emergencies caused by transboundary threats. These may be animal or plant pests and diseases or food safety threats and can have a great impact on food security and food safety. Threats to the food chain affect not only  food security livelihoods and human health, but also national economies and global markets. This is why surveillance, early detection, early [...]

During the review period (2007-2015), the government continued to support small and medium scale producers through several schemes, including distributing seeds, expanding agricultural credit, providing direct payments and marketing programmes. Since 2005, the National Pledge Programme has been targeting rice producers and financing storage in periods of low prices or oversupply.

The five-year Peste des Petits Ruminant Global Eradication Programme (PPR-GEP) highlights the technical and policy tools foreseen as appropriate to lay the foundation for and commencement of PPR eradication by reducing the prevalence of PPR in currently infected countries. The programme will also develop capacity for non-infected countries to demonstrate the absence of PPR Virus leading towards official endorsement of PPR free status by the OIE. During its course, the programme will strengthen national Veterinary Service that are the key players in the successful implementation of the PPR GEP. When appropriate, the programme will also support reducing the prevalence of [...]

Transboundary animal diseases (terrestrial and aquatic), plant pests and diseases (agriculture and forest plants) and Food safety hazards, are raising public awareness for their potential impact on food and nutrition security, human health, livelihoods, and trade. The ability to predict FCC threats through a forecasting process is imperative for Governments to act quickly by taking necessary measures to prevent these threats, limit their geographic spread and minimize their impact. To address this challenge, FAO Food Chain Crisis-Intelligence and Coordination Unit (FCC-ICU) developed an Integrated Forecasting Approach. See also the quarterly Early Warning Bulletins that integrate information on threats to the food chain [...]

El presente estudio aporta un marco analítico que describe las principales barreras a la inversión y financiación agropecuaria, las cuales se pueden agregar en la gestión de riesgos financieros, de producción, mercadeo, climáticos e institucionales, y en modelos de negocio que reduzcan costos de transacción para brindar de manera viable productos mejor adaptados a las necesidades de una diversidad de clientes rurales. A su vez, se presenta cómo las tendencias en los mercados agropecuarios han influenciado en la región latinoamericana el sistema financiero rural en general, y el sistema financiero agropecuario en particular, sugiriendo un auge en modelos de negocio [...]

The LEAP (Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance) Partnership is a multi-stakeholder initiative that is committed to improving the environmental performance of livestock supply chains, whilst ensuring its economic and social viability.  Farmers, consumers and other livestock stakeholders are increasingly in need of more information about the environmental performance and the sustainability of livestock supply chains. Although a wide range of environmental assessment methods have been developed, there is a need for comparative and standardized indicators in order to switch focus of dialogue with stakeholders from methodological issues to improvement measures.  LEAP develops comprehensive guidance and methodology for understanding the environmental performance of [...]

The Government’s Green Morocco Plan (Plan Maroc Vert) underlines agriculture’s important role and sets strategies to promote the sector’s development. Despite these efforts, however, important challenges remain. An important one refers to the availability of appropriate financial services for rural actors engaged in agriculture. The average capital required yearly to finance agriculture is estimated at 30 billion Dirhams. The Moroccan banking sector finances only 17 percent of such demand and Credit Agricole du Maroc is responsible for about 80 percent of this share of financing to agriculture. A significant part of the rural population composed of poorer households continues to [...]

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through its Investment Centre (IC) Division, is assisting the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in its goal to improve the impact of future EBRD agribusiness investments regarding water efficiency. To this end, in 2013, a joint FAO/EBRD project entitled “Water along the food chain” was initiated in four pilot countries – Ukraine, Turkey, Jordan and Kyrgyz Republic. The specific objectives of this project are four-fold: (i) conduct selected analyses of water efficiency along the food chain to inform EBRD’s agribusiness investment decisions; (ii) identify potential agribusiness clients for [...]