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Policy Brief Lessons from Africa
The main challenge for African food systems in the future will be to provide food for a rapidly growing population with changing diets and food preferences. Whilst the population of Europe is decreasing, with consumers demanding food that is produced in an environmentally and socially responsible...
SALSA policy briefs to guide policy interventions in support of small farms
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SALSA - Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security, is an EU-funded research project of the Horizon2020 program which run from April 2016 to March 2020 with the aim to provide a better understanding of the role of small farms and small food businesses in meeting the sustainable food and nutrition security challenge.
In the project, FAO was responsible for the communication and joint learning, setting up Communities of Practice at various levels as multi-stakeholder learning platforms to consult, validate and move forward the research and enrich the knowledge base on relevant questions.
SALSA pioneered a novel integrated multi-method approach in 30 regions across 19 countries in Europe and Africa using the most recent satellite technologies, field assessments, systematic review, participatory construction of knowledge, transdisciplinary theory building, and participatory foresight analysis.
One of the project's major outcomes is a series of 5 Policy Briefs with policy lessons and recommendations that especially target decision makers in the reference regions as well as the EU policy development, paying particular attention to the Europe-Africa dialogue.
The SALSA project experience demonstrates that agricultural and food systems research across continents, with research sites in both Europe and Africa, can result in valuable insights and learning in both directions. Lessons from Europe are valuable to African partners, as their countries are developing rapidly. An understanding of strengths and weaknesses of European agricultural policies (and their impacts on small farms) can improve decision making. European partners can learn from Africa about informal and community-based approaches to support food and nutrition security.
The SALSA research shows that policy interventions would benefit from being more territorially based and from taking into account the characteristics of regional food systems and as well as the different types of small farms that take part in them.
Small farms in Africa are estimated to undertake more than 70% of the agricultural activities on the continent, thereby helping ensure food, employment and rural livelihoods. Available data however indicate that there remain severe challenges related to food insecurity and nutrition. Producing enough food in Africa in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner will therefore require sustainable increases in productivity for all farm types. Two overriding policy recommendations of relevance to all regions studied:
- Introduce appropriate combinations of policy interventions to help small farms add value to their produce since they are more productive and profitable when they specialize in quality produce and processing. This may include support to those small farms that are mainly self-provisioning, but who have the ambition to commercialise.
- Foster and facilitate cooperation as the most enabling and empowering form of governance for small farms and small food businesses. This includes the introduction of appropriate frameworks for value chain strategies /contracts that promote greater coordination and the more equitable distribution of power and financial benefit between small farmers and other supply chain actors.
The Policy Briefs
On-farm practices for the safe use of wastewater in urban and peri-urban horticulture
This training handbook is a field guide for training urban and peri-urban vegetable farmers in safe practices for irrigating their vegetables with wastewater. It is designed to provide complete information, knowledge and skills for the successful safer production of vegetables in urban and peri...
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Invitación a presentar experiencias en el uso y aplicación de tres conjuntos de recomendaciones de políticas del CSA sobre la agricultura en pequeña escala en el contexto de la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición
El Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial (CSA) invita a las partes interesadas a compartir experiencias en el uso y aplicación las recomendaciones de políticas del CSA sobre la agricultura en pequeña escala.
FAO's work on family farming. Preparing for the Decade of Family Farming (2019–2028) to achieve the SDGs
Family farming is by far the most prevalent form of agriculture both in developed and developing countries, representing the largest source of employment worldwide. It is much more than a mode of food production. It is a way of life. In 2014, the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF 2014)...
Erradicar la pobreza extrema: ¿qué papel tiene la agricultura?
Este documento resume la discusión en línea Erradicar la pobreza extrema: ¿qué papel tiene la agricultura? que se celebró en el Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición de la FAO (Foro FSN) del 3 al 24 de abril de 2018. La discusión estuvo facilitada por Ana Paula de la O Campos y Maya...
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Erradicar la pobreza extrema: ¿qué papel tiene la agricultura?
Con esta discusión en línea, nos gustaría invitarles a reflexionar sobre el vínculo entre la pobreza extrema y la inseguridad alimentaria.
Mientras hay pocas dudas de que el hambre y la pobreza están estrechamente vinculadas, las políticas e intervenciones para combatir el hambre y la pobreza extrema son a menudo sectoriales y abordan uno u otro de los dos problemas.
Enhancing the potential of family farming for poverty reduction and food security through gender-sensitive rural advisory services
This paper is based on an examination of a broad selection of existing literature on the subject of gender-sensitive rural advisory services (RAS) and has four objectives. The first is to document gender-differentiated barriers in access to RAS and the challenges of effectively targeting women...
Online discussion on ICTs and Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition
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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the Global Data on Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN); Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR); the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the World Bank are inviting interested individuals to participate in the online discussion on ICTs and Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition currenlty held on the e-agriculture platform.
The proposed online debate on the e-Agriculture platform seeks to explore the interaction between use of ICTs in agriculture and issues around open data in agriculture and nutrition and its effective use, with a focus on establishing what benefits and possible losses, can accrue to farmers, especially small holder family farmers in developing countries, if technology and open data are used conjunctively.
Las Compras Públicas de la Agricultura Familiar y la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional En América Latina y el Caribe: Lecciones Aprendidas y experiencias
Las compras públicas de la AF son una de las principales innovaciones en las recientes estrategias de erradicación del hambre y de la pobreza en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC). Diversos países han desarrollado políticas de SAN incluyendo en sus estrategias las compras de productos de la AF. La...