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Climate change is leading to a rise in global temperatures, which poses a major threat to agriculture production, and to the welfare of smallholder farmers. Identifying sustainable farming practices to reduce the sensitivity of Ugandan agriculture to rising temperatures is critical for safeguarding the livelihoods of farmers. This brief provides evidence on the positive impacts of organic fertilizer application, coffee-banana intercropping and cereal-legume intercropping on crop production value under conditions of high temperatures, and considers policy options to support their sustained adoption in Uganda and elsewhere. 

Disasters precipitated by climate change and climate variability are already wreaking havoc in the Caribbean fisheries sector. Examples include hurricanes: Irma 2017 in Barbuda, Maria 2017 in Dominica, Dorian 2019 in The Bahamas. Doing nothing different from current practices will result in increasing damage and critical losses to the fisheries sector. This policy brief highlights the disaster risk management (DRM) cycle for the fisheries sector; summarises ongoing DRM initiatives; presents supporting policy actions for adaptation; and aligns with Sustainable Development Goals, the Small-scale Fisheries Guidelines and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Progressively more countries are reportedly incorporating school-based food and nutrition education (SFNE) into their education, nutrition and school feeding policies, acknowledging its role in impacting children’s food outlooks and practices, and that of their parents, families and the community. Despite this increasing interest and global recognition, there is no clear picture of SFNE implementation at school level, which makes it challenging to identify gaps, take corrective measures, make reforms or introduce new policy initiatives.Framed under FAO’s school food and nutrition work, the aim of the survey was to determine the current role, approach, scope and linkages of government run SFNE [...]

This short version of the Regional Overview adresses the region's latest progress in meeting zero hunger and the regional trends related to hunger, food insecurity and the triple burden of malnutrition. It describes the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean, putting an emphasis on lagging territories; it also presents a diagnosis and the main trends in recent days. Finally it analyzes the main public policies that the countries of the region are developing to secure food security and nutrition for laggard territories. Also available in Spanish and Portuguese

The 2020 report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the Asia and Pacific region, provides an update on progress towards the 2030 targets (SDGs and WHA) at the regional and country level. Selected indicators look at undernourishment, food insecurity, childhood stunting, wasting and overweight, adult overweight, child minimum acceptable diet, exclusive and continued breastfeeding, and anaemia in women and children. While the region continues to work towards ending all forms of malnutrition and achieving Zero Hunger, progress on food security and nutrition has slowed, and the Asia and Pacific region is not on track to achieving 2030 targets. [...]

This brief provides an overview of Climate Services (CS) and how they can be used to assess risk and optimize adaptation decision-making in the agriculture sectors.1 It highlights entry points to integrate CS across all elements of adaptation planning while acknowledging the challenges and limitations of using CS, particularly in the least Developed Countries (LDCs). The brief also discusses key considerations in using climate services for planning and provides technical guidance on dealing with the uncertainty and confidence of climate projections.

La pandemia de COVID-19 ha generado graves amenazas para la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición y ha afectado en gran medida a los medios de vida y las condiciones de trabajo en las cadenas de valor agrícolas. Esta nota de orientación sobre políticas se centra en el papel de la inversión responsable y la conducta empresarial responsable a lo largo de las cadenas de valor agrícolas en el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19. También presenta recomendaciones de políticas para los gobiernos, los inversores, las empresas y la sociedad civil sobre la forma en que pueden alentar la inversión responsable [...]

This regional publication provides an overview of the development of organic agriculture in eighteen (18) countries in the following ECA sub-regions: Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan); Eastern Europe (Belarus, Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine); South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia); and South Eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey).The report includes an in-depth analysis of how these countries have achieved the current state of organic agriculture regarding legislative and policy frameworks, governance systems, production, key actors, marketing, opportunities and challenges, and future strategies. The presence of transparent and reliable [...]

Unlike any other crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted food value chains at all levels (production, processing, logistics and even consumer behaviour to name a few). The impacts vary across countries and are constantly changing with the spread of the pandemic as governments, stakeholders and other actors in value chains adopt and implement a broad spectrum of measures to manage the spread of the virus and mitigate its impacts on food insecurity and poverty. The present brief reviews secondary information pertinent to the impacts of COVID-19 on dairy producing/processing cooperatives, and their coping strategies, with a view to developing policy recommendations [...]

This study, prepared within the ambit of The State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources, reviews issues related to the development of indicators for tree genetic diversity. It includes a historical account of the development of science-based indicators for tree genetic diversity that embrace ecological surrogates for genetic diversity, the genealogical approach, genetic monitoring of management units, the use of molecular markers, as well as relevant experience from other organisms and policy processes. It also includes a section on relevant data, data sources, and databases. Finally, the study proposes a set of four operational indicators for monitoring tree genetic diversity. The [...]