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Agri-Food Innovation – Towns

Investing in inclusive agri-food industries and services for functional and prosperous territories












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    Booklet
    High-profile
    Realizing the potential of digitization to improve agri-food system – Proposing a new International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture
    A concept note
    2020
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    This concept note has been produced in response to a request by 74 agriculture ministers in January 2019 during the Global Forum on Food and Agriculture (GFFA) and supported financially by the Federal Republic of Germany. It proposes the creating of a new body, an International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture, to enhance international cooperation, the exchange of ideas and experiences across borders, creating synergies and avoiding duplication of efforts. It will strive to keep pace with rapid developments in digitalization, working with new digital tools and the highest expertise available. In line with this, it will help to tackle challenges of food security, hunger, health, inclusiveness and sustainability in the agri-food system at national, regional and international levels. With this approach, the Digital Council would provide structured and strategic agricultural policy recommendations on digitalization to governmental and non-governmental actors, strengthen international cooperation in the agri-food system to identify the challenges and solutions. Examples of activities include the organization of international forums to share best policy practices, and promoting interaction among farmers associations from different countries and national- and international-level stakeholders. The scope and function of the proposed Digital Council are summarised herein for consideration by government ministers, international organization members, donors and other stakeholders. It was highly noted amongst all stakeholders involved in the process of producing this concept note that the proposed Digital Council would have significant impacts on increasing the positive benefits of digitization in the food and agriculture sector, contributing to improving rural livelihoods.
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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Brochure
    Linking agri-food SMEs to innovation for sustainable food systems: the role of multi-stakeholder approaches
    Thursday 13 October 2022 | 09:30 – 11:00 (CEST)
    2022
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    This series of technical webinars is organized to leverage the knowledge and expertise of a network of researchers, development practitioners and decision-makers. The webinars aim at strengthening knowledge sharing and stimulating debate around themes relevant to food systems transformation in the Mediterranean, peer exchange about recent research and study findings, as well as showcasing successful and inspiring actions to promote the operationalization of food systems approaches. This webinar, designed in the framework of the FAO Science and Innovation Forum, will bring together stakeholders from across the Mediterranean to present concrete experiences of university-business cooperation, successful cases of innovation adoption and transfer, innovative pathways of capacity development, provocative thoughts from investors and farmers. The webinar will highlight the needs and challenges that agrifood SMEs and farmers are experiencing in linking with innovation and investigate possible pathways and the added value of multi-stakeholder approach to promote the uptake of innovation. The event will also allow strengthening collaboration among the different partners and stakeholders shaping the agrifood ecosystem, that are essential to enable SMEs and farmers with solutions, tools and best practices. The webinar will aim to address a key question: how can multi-stakeholder approaches accelerate the transition of agrifood SMEs towards more sustainable business practices?
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    Book (stand-alone)
    Technical book
    Digital Revitalization of the Agri-food Sector in Mashreq
    Focus on Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon
    2021
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    Sustainably developing the agri-food sector in Mashreq countries is of paramount importance for food security, job creation, expanded export potential, and social stability and inclusion.Digital technologies could create a new momentum for economic development by accelerating the structural transformation process and by supporting the transition toward a more competitive, commercially oriented, and export-oriented agriculture and agri-business sector. Like any major technology change, digital transformation of the agri-food sector also comes with risks that need to be understood and appropriately managed.Digital technologies show promise for advancing the digital transformation of the agriculture sector in the three Mashreq countries (Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon), although their adoption is still at a relatively early stage.Digital agriculture in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon is limited by many factors.Achieving successful results in Mashreq will require that: 1)users have a better awareness of digital applications, and 2)digital applications provide timely, localized, and customized information addressing specific farming concerns in a comprehensible format and in Arabic or local languages. The public sector has an important role in identifying public goods, policies, and investments needed to maximize the societal benefits from digital agriculture in increasing efficiency, equity, and environmental sustainability in agri-food systems.The catalytic investments and policies include establishing e-Government systems for all public services, facilitating the deployment of smart irrigation and fertilizer management systems along with appropriate policies to safeguard overexploitation of natural resources, and fostering digital ecosystem development.To stimulate the agriculture sector’s digital transformation, governments should enable the following digital and non-digital foundations.

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    Book (stand-alone)
    Technical book
    Soil erosion: the greatest challenge for sustainable soil management 2019
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    Despite almost a century of research and extension efforts, soil erosion by water, wind and tillage continues to be the greatest threat to soil health and soil ecosystem services in many regions of the world. Our understanding of the physical processes of erosion and the controls on those processes has been firmly established. Nevertheless, some elements remain controversial. It is often these controversial questions that hamper efforts to implement sound erosion control measures in many areas of the world. This book, released in the framework of the Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (15-17 May 2019) reviews the state-of-the-art information related to all topics related to soil erosion.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    High-profile
    State of knowledge of soil biodiversity - Status, challenges and potentialities
    Report 2020
    2020
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    There is increasing attention to the importance of biodiversity for food security and nutrition, especially above-ground biodiversity such as plants and animals. However, less attention is being paid to the biodiversity beneath our feet, soil biodiversity, which drives many processes that produce food or purify soil and water. This report is the result of an inclusive process involving more than 300 scientists from around the world under the auspices of the FAO’s Global Soil Partnership and its Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative, and the European Commission. It presents concisely the state of knowledge on soil biodiversity, the threats to it, and the solutions that soil biodiversity can provide to problems in different fields. It also represents a valuable contribution to raising awareness of the importance of soil biodiversity and highlighting its role in finding solutions to today's global threats.
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    Book (series)
    Flagship
    The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020
    Transforming food systems for affordable healthy diets
    2020
    Updates for many countries have made it possible to estimate hunger in the world with greater accuracy this year. In particular, newly accessible data enabled the revision of the entire series of undernourishment estimates for China back to 2000, resulting in a substantial downward shift of the series of the number of undernourished in the world. Nevertheless, the revision confirms the trend reported in past editions: the number of people affected by hunger globally has been slowly on the rise since 2014. The report also shows that the burden of malnutrition in all its forms continues to be a challenge. There has been some progress for child stunting, low birthweight and exclusive breastfeeding, but at a pace that is still too slow. Childhood overweight is not improving and adult obesity is on the rise in all regions.The report complements the usual assessment of food security and nutrition with projections of what the world may look like in 2030, if trends of the last decade continue. Projections show that the world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 and, despite some progress, most indicators are also not on track to meet global nutrition targets. The food security and nutritional status of the most vulnerable population groups is likely to deteriorate further due to the health and socio economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.The report puts a spotlight on diet quality as a critical link between food security and nutrition. Meeting SDG 2 targets will only be possible if people have enough food to eat and if what they are eating is nutritious and affordable. The report also introduces new analysis of the cost and affordability of healthy diets around the world, by region and in different development contexts. It presents valuations of the health and climate-change costs associated with current food consumption patterns, as well as the potential cost savings if food consumption patterns were to shift towards healthy diets that include sustainability considerations. The report then concludes with a discussion of the policies and strategies to transform food systems to ensure affordable healthy diets, as part of the required efforts to end both hunger and all forms of malnutrition.