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Spatial disconnect between cropping system diversification and climate risk. In Zambia, farmers residing in areas with low and medium rainfall risk are more likely to adopt diversified systems than farmers in areas with lower rainfall and greater rainfall variability. Lack of diversification in high risk regions poses a significant threat to livelihood resilience in those regions. Diverse cropping systems improve productivity and resilience. Increased level of diversification is associated to more stable crop income, when compared to maize monocropping. However, farmers facing land fragmentation, weakness of private input and output markets and uncertainty from the public policies are less likely [...]

Farmers in Mozambique are diversified, but subsistence-oriented. Thirty-seven percent of farmers in Mozambique grow a three crop system based on maize, a legume, and an alternative staple, such as cassava or sorghum. This system is an effective adaption strategy, as it reduces crop income volatility compared to less diverse systems, but it is also associated with low levels of productivity, input use, and incomes. Adoption of cash cropping system improves farmers’ welfare. Farmers who adopt cash crops have higher average incomes and higher productivity levels. However, only 19 percent of farmers grow cash crops. Limited household resources and isolation from [...]

Increasing exports is one of the most important priorities for governments and plays a prominent role in the development agenda in developing countries, high-income states and all countries between. On the other hand, pursuing the intensification of trade demands a deliberate policy framework tailored to country-specific needs and the interests of producers. In light of this, governments around the globe have developed various export promotion policies – some that share similar characteristics and others that are unique – that can serve as best practices to many. The purpose of this paper is to identify the best promotional practices implemented [...]

The FAO Food Price Index is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities

The Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) database includes over 1400 monthly domestic retail and/or wholesale price series of major foods consumed in 94 countries and weekly/monthly prices for 85 internationally traded foods. The Tool provides easy access to the data, allowing users to quickly browse and analyse trends of single price series, create comparisons among countries/markets/commodities, and download charts, data and basic statistics such as maximum and minimum levels, averages, percentage changes and standard deviations over different time periods. The Tool was developed in 2010 as part of FAO’s initiatives to address the soaring food prices.

Asia and the Pacific is experiencing major demographic shifts and urbanizing rapidly. E-agriculture technologies (remote sensing, drones, sensors) are emerging, with potentially profound implications for the entire food system and management of the natural resource base. Structural transformation of the economy has also changed the nature of the food security problem. Earlier, many governments thought that producing more staple food was sufficient to improve food security. However, today’s economy, increasingly based on human capital and less on physical strength, requires that policies and programmes promote healthy diets for healthy people. This need for improved nutrition will require shifts in agricultural [...]

This leaflet summarizes the modeling framework used in the corporate publication "The future of food and agriculture - Alternative pathways to 2050" and related inputs from the FAO Global Agriculture Perspectives System Partial Equilibrium model (GAPS) and the Environmental Impact and Sustainability Applied General Equilibrium (ENVISAGE). Click here for the publication "future of food and agriculture".

The platform presents country-level indicators and analyses of Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP). They inform different aspects of food and agricultural policies, including analysis of agricultural public expenditure, analysis of price incentives for agricultural commodities, and policy coherence assessment.

This site hosts FAO intergovernmental group on jute, kenaf and allied fibres. It's a forum for intergovernmental consultation and exchange on trends in production, consumption, trade and prices of jute, kenaf and allied fibres, including regular appraisal of the global market situation and short term outlook. The Group, under FAO auspices, considers changes in national policies and examines their international effects as pertaining to the current and prospective market situation.

The site hosts the FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea, a forum for intergovernmental consultation and exchange on trends in production, consumption, trade and prices of tea. This includes regular appraisal of the global market situation and short-term outlook.