The Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Unit (ESAF) of FAO has undertaken a number of pilot studies to develop a methodology for understanding why certain groups of people are vulnerable to becoming food insecure....

Rapid economic and income growth, urbanization, and globalization are leading to a dramatic shift of Asian diets away from staples and increasingly towards livestock and dairy products, vegetables and fruit, and fats and oils. While...

Using an ethnographic approach, this study explores small-scale farmers’ perceived transaction costs in relation to maize seed acquisition in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. These farmers have different needs and require seed of diverse maize...

Agriculture and livestock are key components of the livelihoods of the poor. Livestock make a substantial contribution to household livelihoods’ and currently sustain the livelihoods of an estimated 700 million rural poor in developing countries....

Adequate public research capacity is key to the appropriate development of biotechnology, including genetically modified (GM) crops. While commercial crops can be introduced without intensive local research (i.e. insect resistant GM cotton), introducing products of...

Using evidence from two recent data sources – the 2002 Albania Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) and the 2001 Population Census of Albania – the paper documents the phenomena of internal and external migration in...

As shown empirically for many transition economies, even small changes in assumptions on economies of size and adult equivalence scales are likely to produce significant changes in the analysis of poverty and its distribution...

This report documents the main findings of the vulnerable profiling work carried out in Viet Nam, in cooperation with national partners and under the framework of a UNDP “Policy and Strategy for Sustainable Food Security...

This report documents the main findings of vulnerable group profiling work in Nepal. It identifies the characteristics and investigates the vulnerability for seven particular livelihood groups, notably marginal farm households in the Terai, in the...

The full benefits of agricultural biotechnology will only be realized if consumers and food manufacturers consider it safe and beneficial. Although few internationally comparable public opinion surveys have been conducted on this issue, the available...