Between 2015 and 2017, FAO organized a series of multistakeholder workshops on Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (RAI) in Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania as part of the Inter-agency Working Group (IAWG) programme on principles guiding new investment in agriculture. In Ghana, workshop participants identified gender and youth issues as particularly relevant to…
Behind all the food that we eat is a vast realm of unaccounted for interactions:the diversion of water from rivers; the extraction of nutrients from soil; thedischarge of pollutants to air and water; the exaction of labor to grow, manage,pick, and package; the release of carbon dioxide to transport and deliver; and soon. When we shine a light on these interactions it becomes clear that a 99¢ha…
ollowing the reign of nation states, there is every reason to believe that the twenty-first century will be a new era for cities.First because, from a structural standpoint, currently over half of the world popu-lation is urban (compared to 30% in 1950), and it will increase to two-thirds by 2050 according to the United Nations (2014). Medium-sized cities have consider-able weigh…
This book draws on the life stories told by shepherds, farmers, and their families in the Andalusian region in Spain to sketch out the landscapes, actions, and challenges of people who work in pastoralism. Their narratives highlight how local practices interact with regional and European communities and policies, and they help us see a broader role for extensive grazing practices and sustainabi…
Global population is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050. The number of young people (aged15 to 24) is also expected to increase to 1.3 billion by 2050, accounting for almost 14 percent of the projected global population. Most will be born in developing countries in Africa and Asia, where more than half of the population still live in rural areas (UNDESA, 2011). Rural youth continue to face ch…
This brief provides a rigorous and standardized approach for value chain analysis and design (VCA/D).1 It assumes that a specific value chain (VC) has already been selected and describes how to complete the first two steps for its sustainable evelopment, namely analysing the VC and designing an upgrading strategy and development plan for it.2 The next step, beyond this brief, is the implementat…
Only with knowledge can we free the world from hunger, malnutrition and poverty. According to the Basic Texts of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Organization’s first function is to “collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture”. FAO’s strategic focus on “the four betters” – better product…
Disasters are resulting in unprecedented levels of destruction across the world. These shocks and disruptions affect the functioning and sustainability of agricultural production and threaten the livelihoods of millions of people reliant on agrifood systems. Reducing the impact of disasters in agriculture requires a better understanding of the extent to which these events produce negative im…
Greening the economy with agriculture refers to increasing food security (in terms of availability, access, stability and utilization) while using less natural resources, through improved efficiencies throughout the food value chain