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Book (series)FlagshipThe State of Food and Agriculture 2019
Moving forward on food loss and waste reduction
2019The need to reduce food loss and waste is firmly embedded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Food loss and waste reduction is considered important for improving food security and nutrition, promoting environmental sustainability and lowering production costs. However, efforts to reduce food loss and waste will only be effective if informed by a solid understanding of the problem. This report provides new estimates of the percentage of the world’s food lost from production up to the retail level. The report also finds a vast diversity in existing estimates of losses, even for the same commodities and for the same stages in the supply chain. Clearly identifying and understanding critical loss points in specific supply chains – where considerable potential exists for reducing food losses – is crucial to deciding on appropriate measures. The report provides some guiding principles for interventions based on the objectives being pursued through food loss and waste reductions, be they in improved economic efficiency, food security and nutrition, or environmental sustainability. -
Book (stand-alone)Technical bookDigital agriculture in action
ArtificiaI intelligence for agriculture
2021Also available in:
No results found.This publication on artificial intelligence (AI) for agriculture is the fifth in the E-agriculture in Action series, launched in 2016 and jointly produced by FAO and ITU. It aims to raise awareness about existing AI applications in agriculture and to inspire stakeholders to develop and replicate the new ones. Improvement of capacity and tools for capturing and processing data and substantial advances in the field of machine learning open new horizons for data-driven solutions that can support decision-making, facilitate supervision and monitoring, improve the timeliness and effectiveness of safety measures (e.g. use of pesticides), and support automation of many resource-consuming tasks in agriculture. This publication presents the reader with a collection of informative applications highlighting various ways AI is used in agriculture and offering valuable insights on the implementation process, success factors, and lessons learnt. -
DocumentWorking paperEstimating Food Consumption Patterns by Reconciling Food Balance Sheets and Household Budget Surveys
dec/14
2014Also available in:
No results found.Food Balance Sheets (FBS) are one of the most important sources of data on food availability for human consumption. This paper presents a method to improve the information on food consumption patterns of FBS by using national household budget surveys (HBS). In this paper, food commodities are categorized into 16 major food groups. For each food group, the contribution to the overall caloric intake is represented in shares. Item group shares of 64 surveys from 51 low and middle income countries are compared with shares from country-specific FBS. Given the countries represented in the data, the analysis evaluates food consumption of over 3 billion persons worldwide. A model based on a cross-entropy measure of information has been developed in order to reconcile aggregate food consumption patterns suggested by FBS and HBS. The latter model accounts for the fact that data from both data sources are prone to measurement errors. Overall, the results of the reconciliation suggest that aver age consumption of cereals, eggs, fish products, pulses and vegetables are likely to be underestimated in FBS, while fruits, meat, milk and sugar products are likely to be overestimated in FBS. Even though the suggested changes in average food consumption are moderate, the results imply considerable relative changes in the aggregate consumption of single food groups. Furthermore, the results imply that the aggregate consumption of fats is 2% higher than currently assumed. The updated consumption patterns provide valuable information from an agro-industrial perspective. Differences in updated consumption pattern with respect to the original FBS might suggest a re-evaluation of FBS elements of the value chain, starting from production and ending at food losses.