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From 2003, the Zero Hunger Program and subsequently, in 2011, the Brazil Without Poverty Plan, marked a deliberate convergence of the purposes and actions focused on farmers and family farmers in Brazil. This allowed simultaneous access to social policies and polices focused on agriculture and livestock activities, through a permanent set of public policies, such as rural credit, climate and income insurance, technical assistance and commercialization. This happened in parallel to affirmative actions related to gender, ethnicity and rural youth. To deal with such complex themes such as eradicating hunger and extreme poverty, the Federal Government began to integrate traditionally [...]

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 [...]

This paper provides estimates of investment costs, both public and private, required to eliminate chronic dietary energy deficits, or to achieve zero hunger by 2030. This target is consistent with achieving both Sustainable Development Goal 2, to eliminate hunger by 2030, and Sustainable Development Goal 1, to eradicate poverty. The study adopts a reference baseline scenario, reflecting a “business as usual” situation, to estimate the additional investment requirements. In this scenario, around 650 million people will still suffer from hunger in 2030. We then estimate the investment requirements to eliminate hunger by 2030. Hunger is eliminated through a combination of [...]

This manual is designed guide programme planners in the design of nutrition-sensitive programmes. It is based on a thorough review of experience on nutrition-sensitive Agriculture, was developed through extensive consultation within FAO and with its development partners, and has been field-tested in several countries. It is structured around the first phases of the programming cycle (situation appraisal, programme design and programme review) and includes key questions, accompanied by tips and references. 

This video explains the climate-smart agriculture approach including its objectives and why it is needed. Climate change will hit farmers, herders and fishers the hardest. The Climate-smart agriculture approach promotes the development of the technical, policy and investment conditions to achieve sustainable agricultural development for food security under a changing climate. It seeks to: increase sustainably agricultural productivity and incomes, help adapt and build resilience to climate change impacts and wherever possible, reduces and/or removes greenhouse gases.  To make climate-smart agriculture a reality we need to: expand the evidence base; improve policies; empower local institutions; and combine new financing options. Let’s make [...]

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 [...]

Attempts have been made to institutionalize government programmes in favour of long-term and comprehensive strategies: notably, the introduction and reinforcement of conditional cash transfer programmes and free food distribution systems. Input distributions continue to be the main policy instrument to support farmers.

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.