FAO.org

This progress report details the work carried out by FAO across the Southwest Asia to combat the unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods posed by the ongoing desert locust invasion. The report outlines the control measures taken so far as well as the longer-term reposnse planned for safeguarding the means of survival of millions of vulnerable people who could be affected by the pest, particularly with the compounding impact of COVID-19 and the restrictions this will likely incur for the Organization's humanitarian assistance.

The occurrence and spread of an animal health threat can be prevented when a timely assessment of the risk is carried out to inform prevention, response and control measures. These technical guidelines on rapid risk assessment (RRA) are designed as a simple and practical tool to be used by veterinary services to build risk assessment capacities and assist decision-makers in conducting qualitative RRA on the emergence, occurrence and/or spread of animal health threats. Using available evidence, data and information, a multidisciplinary team can conduct an RRA in a short time (within two weeks).The publication provides a simple and flexible methodology [...]

This Country Programming Framework (CPF) sets out five government priority areas to guide the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (FAO) partnership and support to the Government of Nigeria (GoN) – bringing together innovative international best practices and global standards with national and regional expertise during a five-year period from 2018 to 2022.The priority areas are:1. Strengthen national food security and nutrition through enhanced nutrition-sensitive and climate smart food systems.2. Support for appropriate and operationally effective agricultural policy and regulatory frameworks.3. Support to Nigeria's economic diversification agenda and the promotion of decent employment for youth and women in [...]

This book aims to strengthen the skills of professionals who use, manage data for the benefit of farmers and farmers organizations by exposing them to the topics of importance of data in the agriculture value chain and how new and existing technologies, products and services can leverage farm level and global data to improve yield, reduce loss, add value and increase profitability and resilience.

This brief reviews some of the main land use contraints to reducing agriculture-led forest loss in Viet Nam. We find that agricultural land use constraints increase agriculture-driven pressure on forests. Farmers producing high-value crops have more incentives to deforest, and this increase when operating in areas with land use constrains. Removing land use constraints, repurposing agricultural support and reinforcing environmental regulations would improve agricultural productivity, sustainability and climate resilience, while reducing pressure on forests. The findings in this brief have been adapted from the FAO Agrifood Economics project “Guiding policies and investments to reduce agriculture-led deforestation in Viet Nam”.

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. 

This action sheet is part of a series of action sheets developed under the seven key priority areas of the FAO COVID-19 Response and Recovery programme, the FAO umbrella programme designed to proactively and sustainably address the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. Each action sheet includes a project proposal in support of countries most in need for which FAO is leveraging high-level political, financial and technical expertise. All action sheets are gathered on the Food Coalition web hub,  where members of the Coalition - a multi-stakeholder global alliance for a unified global action in response to COVID-19 -  can easily [...]

In 2020, the corona virus spread around the globe, and its containment measures resulted in unprecedented socio-economic impacts. ASEAN region’s economy is estimated to experience a decline between 3.5 and 4.7 per cent for 2020. The restrictions to contain the virus spread, although necessary, hit many households income, particularly of the most vulnerable. Yet other disasters have continued to hit the region. Convergence of the impacts of compounded shocks from multiple hazards, can push vulnerable households into deeper or prolonged deprivation and poverty.Social protection is a core part of the efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, facilitate speedy recovery [...]

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

Progress towards Zero Hunger must be protected from the dual challenges of pandemics and climate change. The frequency of infectious disease outbreaks – including the emergence of novel viruses and zoonotic diseases – is expected to continue rising as livestock, food security, economies, and global health are increasingly threatened by a destabilizing climate. At the same time, malnutrition is unacceptably high across all regions of the world. In 2019, nearly one in ten people in the world were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity.The 13th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) in 2021 is seeking recommendations, guided by [...]