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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will vary for different groups of rural population, with the highest impact expected to be on farmers and other vulnerable groups, especially women and youth. Targeted support is feasible only by activating a network of actors or organizations within agricultural innovation systems (AIS) and promoting customized technologies and practices suitable for location specific contexts. This brief illustrates the extensive repository of good practices and technologies provided by FAO as part of its online knowledge portals. These practices and technologies can be easily adopted to respond to the needs of the smallholders, rural youth and [...]

The FAO Statistics Division is monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on national agricultural censuses and provides an overview of its effects on ongoing activities. The information presented is the result of a rapid appraisal and informal consultations with national agricultural census authorities.Revised 13 May 2020New countries addedSee also: National agricultural census operations and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is a health and human crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world. Hundreds of millions of people were already suffering from hunger and malnutrition before the virus hit and, unless immediate action is taken, we could see a global food emergency. In the longer term, the combined effects of COVID-19 itself, as well as corresponding mitigation measures and the emerging global recession could, without large-scale coordinated action, disrupt the functioning of food systems. Such disruption can result in consequences for health and nutrition of a severity and scale unseen for [...]

As the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011–2020 comes to a close and countries prepare to adopt a post-2020 global biodiversity framework, this edition of The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) examines the contributions of forests, and of the people who use and manage them, to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.Forests cover just over 30 percent of the global land area, yet they provide habitat for the vast majority of the terrestrial plant and animal species known to science. Unfortunately, forests and the biodiversity they contain continue to be under threat from actions to convert the land [...]

The 2020 edition of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture has a particular focus on sustainability. This reflects a number of specific considerations. First, 2020 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (the Code). Second, several Sustainable Development Goal indicators mature in 2020. Third, FAO hosted the International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability in late 2019, and fourth, 2020 sees the finalization of specific FAO guidelines on sustainable aquaculture growth, and on social sustainability along value chains.While Part 1 retains the format of previous editions, the structure of the rest of the publication has been [...]

This policy brief focuses on the topic of global emergence of infectious diseases and its links with consumption of wild meat, ecosystem disruption, habitat degradation and biodiversity loss. Emerging infectious diseases are a significant and growing threat to global health, economies and security. There is evidence that landscape changes and biodiversity loss are key drivers of the (re-) emergence of infectious diseases. More systematic research is needed to better understand the role of ecosystems in the regulation of diseases. Effective implementation of the One Health approach, promoting coordinated multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary responses, has the potential to reduce disease transmission risks [...]

The spread of COVID-19 has created tremendous uncertainty on a number of fronts, including the availability of food supplies. In such a situation, countries might be prompted to restrict their food exports to ensure greater domestic availability in the short term. However, such restrictions can cause panic, leading to price surges on international markets, and a breakdown of food supply chains. During the food price crisis in 2007–2008, trade restrictions contributed significantly to price spikes for various commodities (45 percent for rice and 30 percent for wheat (Martin & Anderson, 2020). Price volatility led to social unrest in many countries [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a serious threat to food security and nutrition. Economic turmoil caused by the pandemic threatens both economic and physical access to food (FAO, 2019). Declining incomes may make food, particularly nutritious food, less affordable for some, especially the poor. Disruptions to and possible breakdowns of marketing, logistics and trading systems could make food unavailable in some locations at some times. Hunger and malnutrition could rise.This brief will assess the current situation, provide some examples of how governments and other stakeholders are attempting to build more resilient food systems in response, and offer some broad policy recommendations. [...]

The International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability: strengthening the science-policy nexus was held to support the development of a new vision for more sustainable and socially just fisheries, and more resilient to the challenges of the twenty-first century. The event managed to gather an incredibly diverse group of participants from different sectors and regions around the world. Moreover, a set of recommendations emerged from the sessions’ discussions, that will help improve the sustainability of capture fisheries and progress towards the different targets and objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals.

FAOSTAT is FAO's most comprehensive digital platform on food and agriculture statistics, offering free access to 20 000 indicators on food and agriculture from over 245 countries and territories. The brochure presents FAOSTAT fundamental role in supporting FAO's effort for collecting, analyzing, interpreting food and agriculture statistics and disseminating them globally.