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Book (stand-alone)Technical bookHome gardens key to improved nutritional well-being 2006
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No results found.FAO recognizes that healthy, well-nourished people are both the outcome of successful social and economic development and constitute an essential input to the development process. Achieving nutrition related goals requires that national and sectoral development policies and programmes are complemented by effective community-based action aimed at improving household food security and promoting the year-round consumption of nutritionally adequate diets. These activities are being actively pursued by FAO as part of its field programme. This report provides an account of one such pilot project in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The objective was to promote integrated home gardening, including small livestock and aquaculture. The project activities targeted poor and food-insecure families with under-five-year-old children with moderate or severe undernourishment. Post-project evaluations found increased production of vegetables, fruits, poultry and fish among the targeted households a nd a decline in the rates of undernutrition in children under five years of age. The project demonstrates an effective and sustainable method for improving nutritional standards of low income rural families through integrated household food production, which can be extended to the national level. -
Brochure, flyer, fact-sheetPolicy briefPolicy Brief. Combatting micronutrient deficiencies through home gardens in Sri Lanka 2019
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No results found.Vegetables and fruits are rich in micronutrients, which are essential to maintain optimal health and for growth and development. Despite their significance, in Sri Lanka, the average consumption of fruits and vegetables is lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) minimum recommendations. Inadequate availability of micronutrient-rich food at affordable prices is cited as the key reason for low micronutrient intake levels in Sri Lanka. An avenue to enhance consumption of fruits and vegetables is through home gardens. Several studies have highlighted the key role of home gardens in enhancing food security by providing direct access to a variety of nutritionally rich foods, as well as employment and income generation opportunities to households. In Sri Lanka, many crops in existing home gardens are under-utilized, meaning that these species are not widely grown, rarely found in the market and not cultivated commercially, yet are low maintenance, climate resistant and contain high amounts of micronutrients. In this respect, this policy brief suggests that promoting cultivation, harvesting and consumption of these under-utilized food crops in home gardens is a feasible strategy to sustainably reduce micronutrient deficiencies persistent in the Sri Lankan population.
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Book (stand-alone)Working paperA typology for agrifood systems
Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2024
2024Also available in:
No results found.This document introduces a new agrifood systems typology developed for The State of Food and Agriculture 2024 based on the typology developed by Marshall et al. (2021). It aims to categorize countries based on multiple dimensions of their agrifood systems, offering a valuable complement to context-specific analyses. The typology helps policymakers identify effective policy levers for transforming agrifood systems to deliver nutritious, sustainable diets globally. Agrifood systems are complex, encompassing the entire journey of food from production to consumption. These systems interact dynamically with natural, human, social, and environmental factors. They also face increasing environmental pressures, exacerbated by climate change, which disproportionately affect vulnerable rural communities. Agrifood systems play a crucial role in addressing these challenges and are central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A holistic understanding of these systems is essential for designing policies that drive sustainable transformation. To manage this complexity, typologies have been developed to classify agrifood systems based on economic, political, institutional, and geographical structures. By reducing complexity into identifiable characteristics, typologies help identify commonalities and distinctions across countries, providing a structured approach to policy discussions. -
Book (stand-alone)Technical bookWater quality in agriculture: Risks and risk mitigation 2023
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This publication, Water Quality in Agriculture: Risks and Risk Mitigation, emphasizes technical solutions and good agricultural practices, including risk mitigation measures suitable for the contexts of differently resourced institutions working in rural as well as urban and peri-urban settings in low- and middle-income countries. With a focus on sustainability of the overall land use system, the guidelines also cover possible downstream impacts of farm-level decisions. As each country has a range of site-specific conditions related to climate, soil and water quality, crop type and variety, as well as management options, subnational adjustments to the presented guidelines are recommended. Water Quality in Agriculture: Risks and Risk Mitigation, is intended for use by national and subnational governmental authorities, farm and project managers, extension officers, consultants and engineers to evaluate water quality data, and identify potential problems and solutions related to water quality. The presented guidelines will also be of value to the scientific research community and university students. The chapters in this publication address the following topics: Chapter 2 describes the linkages between water quality and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the need for water quality monitoring. Chapter 3 provides an overview of existing water quality guidelines and standards across the world, including those reliant on technological advances and stringent water quality monitoring, and others based on health-based targets, as recommended by WHO. Chapter 4 is dedicated to pathogenic threats, in particular from domestic wastewater, while the elaborated Chapter 5 targets chemical risks with significant emphasis on salinity. The interlinkages between water quality and aquaculture and water quality and livestock production are described in Chapters 6 and 7, respectively. The importance of water quality for a healthy environment and ecology is explored in Chapter 8, and further extended to watersheds and river basin scales in Chapter 9, looking at the approaches used to analyze, monitor, and manage water quality, and possible downstream impacts in their larger geographical context. Finally, Chapter 10 provides an overview of the most common and/or significant barriers and drivers of relevance for the adoption of water reuse guidelines and best practices within a given regulatory and institutional context with special attention to low- and middle-income countries. -
Book (stand-alone)Technical bookHome gardens key to improved nutritional well-being 2006
Also available in:
No results found.FAO recognizes that healthy, well-nourished people are both the outcome of successful social and economic development and constitute an essential input to the development process. Achieving nutrition related goals requires that national and sectoral development policies and programmes are complemented by effective community-based action aimed at improving household food security and promoting the year-round consumption of nutritionally adequate diets. These activities are being actively pursued by FAO as part of its field programme. This report provides an account of one such pilot project in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The objective was to promote integrated home gardening, including small livestock and aquaculture. The project activities targeted poor and food-insecure families with under-five-year-old children with moderate or severe undernourishment. Post-project evaluations found increased production of vegetables, fruits, poultry and fish among the targeted households a nd a decline in the rates of undernutrition in children under five years of age. The project demonstrates an effective and sustainable method for improving nutritional standards of low income rural families through integrated household food production, which can be extended to the national level. -
Book (stand-alone)Working paperA typology for agrifood systems
Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2024
2024Also available in:
No results found.This document introduces a new agrifood systems typology developed for The State of Food and Agriculture 2024 based on the typology developed by Marshall et al. (2021). It aims to categorize countries based on multiple dimensions of their agrifood systems, offering a valuable complement to context-specific analyses. The typology helps policymakers identify effective policy levers for transforming agrifood systems to deliver nutritious, sustainable diets globally. Agrifood systems are complex, encompassing the entire journey of food from production to consumption. These systems interact dynamically with natural, human, social, and environmental factors. They also face increasing environmental pressures, exacerbated by climate change, which disproportionately affect vulnerable rural communities. Agrifood systems play a crucial role in addressing these challenges and are central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A holistic understanding of these systems is essential for designing policies that drive sustainable transformation. To manage this complexity, typologies have been developed to classify agrifood systems based on economic, political, institutional, and geographical structures. By reducing complexity into identifiable characteristics, typologies help identify commonalities and distinctions across countries, providing a structured approach to policy discussions. -
Book (stand-alone)Technical bookWater quality in agriculture: Risks and risk mitigation 2023
Also available in:
This publication, Water Quality in Agriculture: Risks and Risk Mitigation, emphasizes technical solutions and good agricultural practices, including risk mitigation measures suitable for the contexts of differently resourced institutions working in rural as well as urban and peri-urban settings in low- and middle-income countries. With a focus on sustainability of the overall land use system, the guidelines also cover possible downstream impacts of farm-level decisions. As each country has a range of site-specific conditions related to climate, soil and water quality, crop type and variety, as well as management options, subnational adjustments to the presented guidelines are recommended. Water Quality in Agriculture: Risks and Risk Mitigation, is intended for use by national and subnational governmental authorities, farm and project managers, extension officers, consultants and engineers to evaluate water quality data, and identify potential problems and solutions related to water quality. The presented guidelines will also be of value to the scientific research community and university students. The chapters in this publication address the following topics: Chapter 2 describes the linkages between water quality and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the need for water quality monitoring. Chapter 3 provides an overview of existing water quality guidelines and standards across the world, including those reliant on technological advances and stringent water quality monitoring, and others based on health-based targets, as recommended by WHO. Chapter 4 is dedicated to pathogenic threats, in particular from domestic wastewater, while the elaborated Chapter 5 targets chemical risks with significant emphasis on salinity. The interlinkages between water quality and aquaculture and water quality and livestock production are described in Chapters 6 and 7, respectively. The importance of water quality for a healthy environment and ecology is explored in Chapter 8, and further extended to watersheds and river basin scales in Chapter 9, looking at the approaches used to analyze, monitor, and manage water quality, and possible downstream impacts in their larger geographical context. Finally, Chapter 10 provides an overview of the most common and/or significant barriers and drivers of relevance for the adoption of water reuse guidelines and best practices within a given regulatory and institutional context with special attention to low- and middle-income countries. -
Book (stand-alone)Technical bookHome gardens key to improved nutritional well-being 2006
Also available in:
No results found.FAO recognizes that healthy, well-nourished people are both the outcome of successful social and economic development and constitute an essential input to the development process. Achieving nutrition related goals requires that national and sectoral development policies and programmes are complemented by effective community-based action aimed at improving household food security and promoting the year-round consumption of nutritionally adequate diets. These activities are being actively pursued by FAO as part of its field programme. This report provides an account of one such pilot project in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The objective was to promote integrated home gardening, including small livestock and aquaculture. The project activities targeted poor and food-insecure families with under-five-year-old children with moderate or severe undernourishment. Post-project evaluations found increased production of vegetables, fruits, poultry and fish among the targeted households a nd a decline in the rates of undernutrition in children under five years of age. The project demonstrates an effective and sustainable method for improving nutritional standards of low income rural families through integrated household food production, which can be extended to the national level.