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This publication provides an overview and analysis of the trends in agricultural trade and trade policies in the post-Soviet countries. The annual review serves to enhance transparency in agricultural trade policy measures, contributing to more stable and effective trade in the Europe and Central Asia region.

This course addresses the linkages between trade and food security, which are highly complex and have been subject to intense debates at the national and global levels.

While countries in Europe and Central Asia have made significant progress reducing the prevalence of undernourishment, 14.3 million people still experience severe food insecurity. Malnutrition – in one or more of its three main forms – is present throughout the region. Demand for food is growing, consumption patterns are changing and urbanization is accelerating. The effects of climate change pose considerable challenges to agricultural production. The Sustainable Development Goals provide a fra mework for assessing and tackling these challenges and monitoring progress. Currently only a few countries have policy frameworks that address all four pillars of food security – availability, [...]

Millions of pastoralists worldwide provide food and important environmental benefits, yet they have little say in policies that affect them. In this video, experts and pastoral representatives discuss the importance of pastoralism and the role of the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub in bringing together various stakeholders to advocate sustainable pastoralism. For more information on the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub, please visit http://www.fao.org/pastoralist-knowledge-hub/en/ 

Family farming remains the predominant form of agriculture in Asia and the Pacific. There are more than 570 million farms in the world of which over 500 million are family-owned. They are responsible for at least 56 percent of agricultural production. These smallholder resource-poor farmers are confronted by many challenges – the negative impact of climate change, increased frequency of natural disasters, loss of biodiversity, crude oil price hikes, rapid expansion of bioenergy development, incr easing food price volatility, inefficient supply chains and others. The information needs of farmers will only increase as they have to make more and more [...]

E-agriculture or ICT in agriculture holds great promise in providing access to innovative solutions to many challenges faced by smallholder resource-poor farmers. Access to the right information at the right time makes a great impact on the livelihoods of communities involved in agriculture and allied activities. This publication presents case studies in innovative use of emerging technologies to significantly improve the living standards of farming communities.  

 The FAO-ITU E-agriculture strategy guide is actively being used to assist countries in the successful identification, development and implementation of sustainable ICT solutions for agriculture. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, and connected analytics has great potential to support and address some of the most pressing problems faced by agriculture in terms of access to actionable real-time quality data. Goldman Sachs predicts that the agriculture sector will be the second largest user of drones in the world in the next five years. Sensor networks based on the Internet of things (IoT) are increasingly being used in the [...]

This is a training course on multisectoral approach to sustainable food and agriculture. It examines the challenges facing agriculture and food production systems and presents a common vision and coordinated approach towards sustainable food and agriculture developed through intensive consultations and discussions among agriculture specialists. It illustrates in detail the five key principles that allow the transition toward a more sustainable and productive agriculture, highlighting examples of strategies, policies and technologies and explaining several sustainability frameworks and programmes which can underpin the efforts towards the implementation of sustainability in food and agriculture.  

It is generally assumed that there are strong links between conflict, food security and peace. However, the precise underlying causes and channels that determine these links are often not well understood. More research and data are required to generate the evidence base that helps guide both national and international responses. The present study aims to add to this knowledge. It comes at a time of enhanced risk of famine and severe food crisis in several parts of the world, with conflict as the common denominator. It also comes at a time when the total number of hungry people in the [...]

The Food and Agriculture Policy Decision Analysis (FAPDA) initiative promotes evidence-based decision making by collecting and disseminating information on policy decisions and frameworks through a freely accessible web-based tool. It was developedduring the 2008 food price crisis, within the framework of the Initiative on Soaring Food Prices (ISFP), with the objective to map the policy responses by FAO country members to mitigate the crisis effects. After 2009, the scope was expanded to include medium- and long-term policy decisions in food and agriculture to fill the knowledge gap on policy design and implementation.