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ProjectFactsheetStrengthen Extension Services Capacity and Transform It to Become a Market-Oriented Advisory System - TCP/SYR/3802 2025
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No results found.The crisis in Syria has severely impacted the national agricultural extension services, resulting in the loss of over 50 percent of qualified technical staff and leaving only about 10 percent of extension units operational. Many units have been destroyed or are inaccessible, and the remaining staff are disconnected from recent advancements in agricultural technology. This has led to a need for updating and enhancing their technical knowledge and skills. The reduction in workforce and resources has also impaired the extension services' ability to collect data, affecting agricultural monitoring and production planning. Additionally, the limited accessibility and the loss of staff have diminished field presence and eroded trust between farmers and extension services. Consequently, farmers now rely on various alternative sources for technical advice and market information, including input dealers, market traders, private advisors and farmer organizations. In this context, the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (MAAR) sought the assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to strengthen the capacity of extension services, modernize the advisory system, and shift its role from providing technical production advice to facilitating a market-orientated approach to enhance farmers' profitability and income. This assistance was carried out through the current project, which was developed in consultation with the International Cooperation and Planning Directorate and the Agricultural Extension Directorate of the MAAR. This collaboration ensured that the project was tailored to the ministry’s needs and aimed at enhancing the quality and scope of extension services. Finally, the project was aligned with the United Nations Strategic Framework in Syria, contributing to Pillar Two, "Sustainable Socio-economic Recovery," and Pillar Four, "People Resilience and Institutional Responsiveness.". -
Policy briefPolicy briefAdvancing rural advisory services to promote market orientation in Jordan
Making rural services work for small-scale farmers
2022Also available in:
Rural advisory services play a crucial role in improving smallholders' livelihoods and reducing rural poverty by equipping farmers with the information, knowledge and skills needed to increase their productivity and profitability, to manage risks, and to engage effectively with markets. This entails diverse services that empower farmers to make informed decisions, manage their farms as sustainable businesses, and act collectively to improve economic operations. This wide range of rural advisory services that address agricultural productivity, as well as producers’ organizational, management and marketing capacities, are recognized as market-oriented services. Such diverse services are often provided by multiple service providers from public, private and civil society organizations who engage in the delivery of services in different forms and capacities. Recognizing and leveraging this plurality of service providers has the potential to enhance the quality of services and inclusivity of the service system, ensuring that effective services are accessible to small-scale farmers and responsive to their diverse needs. This policy brief highlights key considerations and recommendations for strengthening rural advisory services in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from a pluralistic and market-oriented system perspective. -
Policy briefPolicy briefAdvancing rural advisory services to promote market-orientation in Lebanon
Making rural services work for small-scale farmers
2022Also available in:
Rural advisory services play a crucial role in improving smallholders’ livelihoods and reducing rural poverty by equipping farmers with the information, knowledge and skills needed to increase their productivity and profitability, to manage risks, and to engage effectively with markets. This entails diverse services that empower farmers to make informed decisions, manage their farms as sustainable businesses, and act collectively to improve economic operations. This wide range of rural advisory services that address agricultural productivity, as well as producers’ organizational, management and marketing capacities, are recognized as market-oriented services. Such diverse services are often provided by multiple service providers from public, private and civil society organizations who engage in the delivery of services in different forms and capacities. Recognizing and leveraging this plurality of service providers has the potential to enhance the quality of services and inclusivity of the service system, ensuring that effective services are accessible to small-scale farmers and responsive to their diverse needs.
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Book (series)NewsletterSpecial report – 2023 FAO Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CFSAM) to the Republic of the Sudan
19 March 2024
2024Also available in:
No results found.Between 2 and 17 January 2024, following a request by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MoA&F), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in close cooperation with the Food Security Technical Secretariat (FSTS) and the State Ministries of Agriculture, carried out its annual Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CFSAM) to estimate the 2023 crop production and assess the food supply situation throughout the 18 states of the country. The report's recommendations are to provide immediate response to the needs of the population most affected by acute food insecurity as well as to support the recovery of the agriculture sector, increasing food production and farmers’ incomes, and enhancing efficiency along the value chain to reduce production costs. -
Book (stand-alone)General interest bookFood policies and their implications on overweight and obesity trends in selected countries in the Near East and North Africa region
Regional Program Working Paper No. 30
2020Also available in:
No results found.Regional and global trends in body weight show that the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region countries, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries, have the highest average body mass index and highest rates of overweight and obesity in the world. There exist several explanations that expound the high rates of overweight and obesity in most NENA countries, including the nutrition transition, urbanization, changes in lifestyle, and consequent reduction of physical activities. This study examines the implication of food policies, mainly trade and government food subsidies, on evolving nutritional transitions and associated body weight outcomes. We examine the evolution of trade (food) policies, food systems, and body weight outcomes across selected countries in the NENA region – Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. In particular, we investigate the implications of important trade (food) policies in shaping diets and food systems as well as their implications on public health outcomes, mainly the rising levels of overweight and obesity in the NENA region. We provide a simple conceptual framework through which trade policies (tariff rates) and domestic government food policies (subsidies) may affect food systems and nutritional outcomes. An important and innovative feature of this study is that it compiles several macro- and micro-level datasets that allow both macro and micro-level analyses of the evolution of trade (food) policies and associated obesity trends. This approach helps to at least partly overcome the data scarcity that complicates rigorous policy research in the NENA region. Overweight and obesity rates have almost doubled between 1975 and 2016, with varying rates and trends across regions. For instance, whereas body weight in the NENA region was comparable with that found in high-income countries in the early years, after the 1990s regional overweight and obesity rates became much higher than those in high-income countries. Specifically, while most high-income countries are experiencing a relative slowing of increases in overweight rates, the trend for the NENA region continues to increase at higher rates. The evolution of overweight rates for the GCC countries are even more concerning. These trends are likely to contribute to the already high burden of non-communicable diseases in the NENA region. Contrary to the conventional view that overweight and obesity rates are urban problems, our findings show that rural body weight has been rising over the past few decades, sometimes at higher rates than in urban areas.