There is increasing emphasis being put on the need to be 'internationally competitive'. This imperative is being driven, it is argued, by the globalization of economic and corporate life. This 'globalization' is the subject of a burgeoning academic literature. To achieve and maintain the necessary competitive edge requires companies to be innovative, technologically dynamic, and organizationally efficient - in a dynamic, not just static sense.
Despite the rapid international development of biotechnology, we still lack knowledge and information about how low- and middle-income countries can best access this promising technology. Nor are the socioeconomic repercussions of applying biotechnology in these countries’ agricultural sectors well understood. This study seeks to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge by analyzing a biotechnology transfer project that provided proprietary recombinant potato technology to Mexico.
It is now widely acknowledged that biotechnology will have significant implications for development. While biotechnology’s potential for low income economies is still the subject of controversy, this paper argues that it is precisely in these countries that food and agriculture related biotechnology could efficiently contribute to the achievement of development objectives. To date, however, biotechnological advances have been realized predominantly in industrialized countries.
Mult-actors Agricultural Innovation Platform (MAIP) is established in rural communities where farmers and key value chain actors become empowered through participatory action research, knowledge co-creation and application, market linkages and so on. MAIPs, as a model for inclusive and collaborative innovation, are increasingly deployed in farmer communities to solve the last-mile bottleneck, namely, the empowerment of smallholder farmers and value chain actors to access innovation and services to drive field-level change.
The Office of Innovation launched the Portfolio Sense-Making initiative to mainstream the concept of innovation portfolio management across FAO teams and Divisions/Offices at HQ, Regional and Country levels. Portfolio Sense-Making involves systematically analyzing and visualizing innovation projects and their key data to understand their interrelationships, strengths, areas for improvement and potential impacts, thereby facilitating informed decision-making and strategic alignment with Organizational goals.
The Food Systems Thinking Guide for UN Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams is an interactive resource designed to support food systems transformation as a contribution to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It emphasizes a systems approach, fostering collaboration across diverse stakeholders – including governments, civil society, and private sectors – to address interconnected challenges like food security, environmental sustainability, and social equity.
Advances in digital technologies are transforming every sector of the economy including agriculture and food systems. Digital technologies offer great potential to enhance resilience, efficiency and greening of agrifood systems, from production, processing, logistics, retail and trade to support services and finance. This study reviews the current state of digital technologies in agriculture in Türkiye. Following a brief review of key trends and challenges in the agriculture sector, the study describes the ecosystem for digital transformation and the current technology supplier landscape.
The FAO Innovation for Blue Transformation series introduces relevant policy initiatives, mechanisms and tools to promote innovation and technical solutions that can accelerate aquatic food systems transformation. The series shares brief and practical knowledge needed for sustainable and resilient aquatic food systems that can nourish the world’s growing population, providing solutions to the challenges preventing these systems from delivering their full potential.
This report, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), explores the promotion of bioeconomy through sustainable agricultural practices in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The analysis highlights the critical role of sustainable and circular bioeconomy in addressing environmental, social, and economic challenges, particularly in the agrifood sector.
Through an innovative continuous professional development training programme, “Growing your business through preventive livestock healthcare”, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has aimed to address private sector veterinary paraprofessionals’ skills gaps and support them to develop successful businesses providing preventive livestock health services to small-scale farmers and pastoralists. These training courses were piloted in Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda in 2023 using a blended learning approach.