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The purpose of the publication is to provide a brief scientific overview and guidance to the government and researchers on the positive results of composting, recommending that they adopt a policy that encourages composting from organic waste, and demonstrating that the expected impact of compost production and its use in agriculture can be viewed from different angles.The organic fraction of the bio-solid waste is utilized as a resource to produce compost. The production process allows the organic part of the waste to be eliminated from the traditional disposal channel (landfill), in order to create an environmentally compatible waste management system.Production [...]

More than 820 million people in the world were hungry in 2018 (FAO, 2019). In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there were 239 million undernourished people, with a prevalence of 22.8 percent as measured by the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU), a Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) indicator. The target is to bring this prevalence to zero by 2030 (Ritchie et al., 2018). According to the latest Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), 9.2 percent of the world’s population (or more than 700 million people) were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity in 2018, with Africa having the highest level of 27 [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound negative effect on the global economy and is occurring in the context of a rapidly changing climate. This year is expected to be the second hottest in recorded history. Weather forecasts for 2020 indicate a high probability that extreme weather will adversely affect food production in many countries. This brief draws on historical evidence and demonstrates that reductions in national food availability caused by severe weather events tend to be considerably larger in magnitude when they occur during global economic downturns. The risks posed by this dual threat are particularly high for poorer countries [...]

This situation report is a consolidation of information on food system disruptions in Africa due to COVID-19 for the period of 1–15 July 2020. As a collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the University of Minnesota – Strategic Partnerships and Research Collaborative, the information in this report is collected by scanning and analyzing public, open-source information. See the full list of policy briefs related to COVID-19

This policy brief aims to provide useful information for policymakers and other stakeholders in developing countries who are in the process of designing COVID-19 response programmes addressing the needs of agrifood and rural sectors through dedicated rural finance instruments and broader financial sector involvement. The brief discusses emerging patterns on how countries are currently responding to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. It looks at a number of innovations, good practices and policy options that emerge as most relevant for developing country contexts. See the full list of policy briefs related to COVID-19

In light of the uncertainties surrounding the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, policy makers must ensure that national responses to the virus do not trigger a food crisis. The Covid-19 outbreak can shift the balance between food demand and supply, especially considering many countries having declared lockdowns and their borders closed. Countries at the highest risk of suffering from a potential food crisis sparked off from the pandemic, are those in Africa. The following note elucidates how the current Covid-19 pandemic is affecting food security in Africa and some key African value chains (i.e. rice, maize, cashew etc.). This note also offers [...]

Updates for many countries have made it possible to estimate hunger in the world with greater accuracy this year. In particular, newly accessible data enabled the revision of the entire series of undernourishment estimates for China back to 2000, resulting in a substantial downward shift of the series of the number of undernourished in the world. Nevertheless, the revision confirms the trend reported in past editions: the number of people affected by hunger globally has been slowly on the rise since 2014. The report also shows that the burden of malnutrition in all its forms continues to be a challenge. [...]

This brochure presents a series of knowledge platforms which make data and information on food and agriculture available, accessible and usable worldwide. This work contributes to the five priorities of FAO to achieve a world without hanger, malnutrition and poverty in a sustainable manner, with a focus on the exchange of knowledge, information and data as a key step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Agriculture is a key sector of the national economy of Ukraine, accounting for approximately one sixth of Gross Domestic product (GDP). The country became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2008, and signed the Association Agreement with the European Union (EU) at the end of 2014. This has led to new export opportunities in the agricultural and food processing sectors. At the same time, new policy approaches, instruments and institutions are needed to support further growth, as well as reforms to make these sectors more effective and competitive. Against this background, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and [...]

Forests cover two-thirds of the land area of Timor-Leste. The majority of the population lives in the forested uplands, and their livelihoods depend on agriculture and forest products. In the last decade, forest area has decreased as a result of unsustainable management, reducing the ability of forest to provide livelihoods to rural people and ecological services, such as water regulation, protection of soils and climate-change mitigation and adaptation. The first ever National Forest Policy (NFP) was formulated with technical assistance from FAO, and enacted in 2007. In order to promote sustainable forest management for the benefit of local people, the [...]