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4 July 2014, Rome - FAO Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, met today with the Rabobank Foundation Managing Director, Pierre van Hedel, to discuss progress made in three joint projects in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. “FAO’s research and technical expertise and Rabobank’s business orientation combined are bringing great results in the field,” the Rabobank Foundation Managing Director said in remarks after the meeting. “Our mutual competences have been brought together and put into action,” he added. A partnership agreement between FAO and Rabobank Foundation was signed in September 2013 with the aim of sharing knowledge, experience, networks and financial resources in order...

Worldwide, the important contributions of agricultural cooperatives to poverty reduction and the achievement of food security are becoming increasingly recognized. As autonomous businesses that are jointly-owned and democratically controlled by their members, cooperatives are a tested model that can sustainably support small-scale producers to improve their access to markets and increase their incomes. 

Message of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations On the 20th UN International Day of Co-operatives  5th July 2014   Worldwide, the important contributions of agricultural cooperatives to poverty reduction and the achievement of food security are becoming increasingly recognized. As autonomous businesses that are jointly-owned and democratically controlled by their members, cooperatives...

2 July 2014, Rome - FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva met today with Hilal Elver,  the newly appointed Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food of the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) and agreed to work together on their complementary mandates. As 2014 marks ten years since the adoption of the “Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security,” Graziano da Silva and Elver discussed progress made so far in implementing the guidelines as well as the challenges that...

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, (FAO) FAO, the UN agency devoted to eradicating hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, is currently working with the Rabobank Foundation in Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia to improve the incomes of smallholder farmers by providing support to small rural businesses, as well as through the identification of productive, competitive and sustainable agri-businesses along the whole value chain. The partners are creating financial literacy programs and management skills training to help farmer producer groups become eligible for formal lending. In Tanzania, these partners are also enabling smallholder rice farmers to participate in the country's warehouse...