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The international community is committed to ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition worldwide by 2030. While much progress has been made, conflict and human-induced and natural disasters are causing setbacks. This year’s The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World warns that the long-term declining trend in undernourishment seems to have come to a halt and may have reversed, largely on account of the above-mentioned factors. Meanwhile, though progress continues to be made in reducing child malnutrition, rising overweight and obesity are a concern in most parts of the world. These and other findings are detailed in the 2017 edition of The State of [...]

This policy brief analyses the main programmes and interventions aimed at promoting youth employment in Uganda, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, as well as innovation and replication potential. The document also provides a series of recommendations towards the replication and upscaling of successful interventions that will inform the National Strategy for Youth Employment in Agriculture (NSYEA), as well as future strategic discussions on youth engagement in agriculture and food systems.  

Sub-Saharan Africa has a long history of internal and international migratory movements. Migration patterns and dynamics from, to and between rural areas are profoundly differentiated across regions, and flows have considerably evolved over time. Yet, more recently, rural migration takes place in the unique situation of a major rural and urban demographic increase, which results in critical socio-economic and environmental challenges. In this context, intertwined migration drivers emerge and call for a better understanding of on-going dynamics. This atlas offers a comprehensive analysis of the existing migration patterns as well as the diverse and multifaceted factors that impact on migration practices. It highlights the complexity of drivers at play and [...]

The aim of the Contract Farming Toolkit is to provide practical information to assist the design and implementation of contract farming schemes. The Contract Farming Centre provides access to sample farming contracts, briefs on different contract issues and a selection of presentation resources.  

Interest in contract farming as a mechanism to coordinate linkages between farmers and agribusiness firms has grown considerably in the recent past, in large part because of the international trends towards tighter alignment in agrifood supply chains. FAO has been responding to this growing demand for information and technical support on contract farming issues by means of actions that include a series of capacity building workshops on planning and implementing contract farming operations, the dissemination of knowledge through the Contract Farming Resource Centre and the development of publications on conceptual, operational and legal aspects of contract farming.  Building on the above, [...]

This brief aims to help regulators and policymakers to achieve a correct understanding of the legal aspects of contract farming (CF). It is based on information extracted from the Legal Guide on Contract Farming (UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD, 2015), and from field experience in the implementation of contract farming projects by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). See also Legal Guide on Contract Farming

This paper reviews the history, organization and implementation mechanisms, policy development and innovations in fisheries and aquaculture insurance in China. With 25 years of practice, fisheries insurance in China has contributed significantly to risk management. It provides compensation for economic loss, life loss and medical expenses of injury, particularly heavy economic loss caused by disasters. The cases studies are of those of capture fishery mutual and finfish, crab, shrimp and seaweed farming. The development status, insurance scheme and performance evaluation are documented. The pilot programmes received technical support from professional associations and cooperatives, as well as professional service from commercial [...]

This review is the second in a series of publications devoted to the analysis of the latest developments in agricultural trade and in trade policy in the post-Soviet countries. This publication includes a chapter on the impact of macroeconomic factors on agri-food trade in the post-Soviet countries. The chapter considers changes in the macroeconomic situation in the countries of the region in 2014-2016 and the main factors of its influence on agri-food trade. Available only in Russian

This note provides a structured review of adoption trends of national policies aimed at promoting healthier diets and collates evidence on their effectiveness. We limit our focus to evidence exploiting data collected after the policy implementation, and using appropriate counterfactual methods to identify the policy effect. See all Trade Policy Technical Notes  

The document is based on the publication “Review of Agricultural Trade Policies in former Soviet Union countries 2015-16” available in Russian. The main economic and political factors influencing the patterns of agrifood trade in the region during 2014 generally continued to have an impact in 2015 and 2016. In particular, a further slowdown in economic growth was observed in all countries during 2015. In addition, the depreciation of all the national currencies against the US dollar and the euro, which began in 2014, continued in 2015 and, in some cases, in 2016. Due to weaker national currencies and falling consumer [...]