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This paper uses scenario analyses to investigate how reductions in food loss and waste (FLW) in the European Union (EU) could influence prices in sub-Saharan Africa – as a source and destination of traded agricultural and food products. In addition to a baseline “business as usual” (BaU) scenario, four scenarios with 50-percent reductions are enacted using the Modular Applied GeNeral Equilibrium Tool (MAGNET). The analysis provides insights on potential impacts in terms of medium- to long-term global and local price changes in sub- Saharan Africa and the mechanisms behind them – changes in production, consumption and trade patterns. It also provides [...]

Agriculture is a source of livelihood for over 35 percent of the world’s population. Natural hazards and disasters – such as floods, drought, storms, earthquakes, landsides, tsunamis or wildfire – disproportionately affect the small-scale farmers, herders, fishers and forest dependent communities who generate over half of the world’s agricultural production. Between 2004 and 2013, agriculture absorbed more than 22 percent of total damage and losses caused by natural disasters in developing countries. Vulnerability increases with each event, reversing improvements to food security, poverty reduction and agricultural development. As a result of climate change, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, intense [...]

Inclusive business models promote the integration of smallholders into markets, with the underlying principle that there are mutual benefits for poor farmers and the business community. A business model describes how any given enterprise – large or small, informal or formal – creates and markets its products or services, obtains finance, and sources inputs. Each enterprise has its own unique business model. The range of business models that make up an agricultural value chain include farm enterprises, traders, agroprocessors, wholesalers, transporters, warehouses and retailers, among others. An inclusive business model approach reinforces the value chain by focusing exclusively on strengthening business models that link small farmers to value chains. Smallholder business models [...]

Consistent with its mandate to pursue a world free from hunger and malnutrition, the following “FAO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples” has been formulated so as to ensure that FAO will make all due efforts to respect, include and promote indigenous issues in relevant work. In so doing, it joins the international community’s increasing mobilization in favour of the rights and concerns of indigenous peoples, most of whom suffer disproportionately from multiple adversities such as discrimination, poverty, ill health, political under-representation, and environmental and cultural degradation. Although much attention is focused on the challenges that indigenous peoples face, it [...]

Negative and positive drivers affecting forests in the GMS co-exist. Negative drivers result in deforestation and forest degradation, and positive drivers promote sustainable forest management (SFM), forest conservation, afforestation and reforestation. Negative drivers are still more dominant than positive ones. Nevertheless, growing signs of positive drivers are starting to emerge in the GMS countries. Policy makers, forest managers and practitioners need to be aware of these drivers and find ways to enhance the positive ones, while reducing the negative ones. In order to promote SFM and address deforestation and forest degradation, the GMS countries need to foster integrated land-use planning [...]

今年的《世界粮食不安全状况》报告旨在回顾在实现与饥饿相关的千年发展目标1和世界粮食首脑会议相关国际目标方面取得的进展，并思考在我们朝着新的“2015年后可持续发展议程”过渡的过程中应该采取哪些行动。报告将回顾各国、各区域以及全球层面1990年以来取得的进展。评估在实现千年发展目标1上的相关进展时，不仅要衡量食物不足或饥饿相关数据，还要衡量另一项指标，即五岁以下儿童体重不足发生率。报告对不同区域、不同时期在两项指标上取得的进展进行比较，以揭示粮食安全问题的复杂性。虽然整体已取得进展，但要消除饥饿和全方位实现粮食安全，摆在面前的工作依然很多。《2015年世界粮食不安全状况》报告不仅要对业已取得的进展进行估算，还要发现有待解决的问题，并就未来应侧重哪些政策提出指导意见，同时还指出迄今为止在成功实现粮食安全与营养相关目标过程中发挥决定性作用的关键因素有哪些。列出的一系列因素包括经济增长、农业生产率增长、市场（包括国际贸易）和社会保护，当然除此之外还有其他因素。本报告还表明，由冲突或自然灾害引发的持续危机已成为各方在减轻饥饿方面取得进展的障碍。

Outbreaks of transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases, including forest pests and aquatic diseases, food safety and radiation events has been increasing over the past years, impacting people’s access to quality food, and putting their livelihoods and health at risk. To address this challenge, FAO established the Food Chain Crisis Management Framework (FCC), an approach combining prevention, preparedness, and response to emergencies affecting the food chain and caused by transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases (including aquatic and forests pests and diseases), food safety and radiological threats.

Water is key to human life. It is key to human food security and nutrition. Safe drinking water and sanitation are fundamental to the good nutrition, health and dignity of all. How can the world ensure food and nutrition security given increasingly scarce water resources, especially in some regions, and the increasing competition for water uses?  This policy-oriented report from the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) presents a synthesis of existing evidence on the multiple relations between water and food security and nutrition, from global levels to household levels. The aim of this report, given the diversity [...]

Drylands cover nearly half of the earth’s land surface and are home to one-third of the global population. They face extraordinary challenges, including those posed by desertification, biodiversity loss, poverty, food insecurity and climate change. Up to 20 percent of the world’s drylands are degraded, and people living there are often locked into a vicious circle of poverty, unsustainable practices and environmental degradation. It is clear that serious efforts are needed to arrest dryland degradation and restore degraded lands, and the simple but urgent aim of these guidelines is to support such efforts. It is the first time that global guidelines on [...]

The AMIS policy database gathers information on trade measures and domestic measures related to the four AMIS crops (wheat, maize, rice, and soybeans) as well as biofuels. The design of this database allows comparisons across countries, across commodities and across policies for selected periods of time.