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Africa-Ireland building inclusive and sustainable food value chains

Workshop report

Year of publication 2018

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 40 p.

Author Kelly, S. ; Ilie, E.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-130955-1

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) The profile of Irish agriculture holds particular interest for developing countries intending to invest in the agri-food sector as a pathway for poverty reduction and employment generation for young people. Until the 1970s, the Irish farming sector held a number of similarities to that of many developing countries today: with over a quarter of the population employed on small farm holdings with little access to value addition opportunities and mass emigration from rural areas. During the 1990s, Ireland’s food sector began a rapid transformation process. Today, it is a world-leader in food-safety, traceability and environmental sustainability, penetrating high-value food markets in the EU, Asia and the US. While the transformation of the Irish sector holds a number of valuable lessons for developing countries, there are also a number of common challenges related to sustainability, gender and nutrition where knowledge exchange on respective initiatives can potentially lead to synergies. Against this background, the ‘Building Inclusive and Sustainable Food Value Chains’ workshop was hosted by the Department of Food, Agriculture and the Marine (DAFM), Ireland at their main offices in Dublin from 7 to 9 of February 2018. The high-level policy meeting, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and DAFM, was designed to exchange lessons on building sustainable and nutritious agri-food sectors and identify how FAO and the AUC can contribute to knowledge exchange on the topic. Ten African countries represented the Africa region at the workshop with various thought leaders from the public and private sector participating. This report represents a summary of workshop findings by the FAO organizers.

Language English

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