This brochure on Global Knowledge Product provides an update of work carried out in 2020 on the development of some selected strategies, guidelines for the assessment of innovation systems, strategies for promoting agricultural innovation, and knowledge portals for sharing of technologies and good practices that integrate sustainable agricultural production and food security. The development of knowledge products contributes to FAO’s strategic objective of making agriculture, forestry, and fisheries more productive and sustainable.

The publication is a part of the FAO work to assist the member countries in reforming their national Extension and Advisory Services (EAS). It highlights the main elements and provide concrete guidelines for the policy makers to coordinate pluralism in extension and advisory services (EAS), i.e. ensuring that multiple EAS providers from public, private sector and NGOs/donors, provide quality services that contribute to national agricultural priorities and wellbeing of rural producers, collaborate and exchange information to maximise synergies and minimise gaps and duplications.

Human nutrition is vital for agriculture. Many smallholder farmers are food-insecure and suffer chronic or acute forms of malnutrition. This can permanently harm the physical and cognitive growth of children, while reducing productivity as household members are less able to carry out agricultural work.

Agriculture is vital for human nutrition. Nutrition has long been considered mostly a health issue. However, agriculture plays an essential role in ensuring nutritional wellbeing not only for rural populations, but also for society as a whole.

While education access has improved globally, gains are uneven, and development impacts driven by increases in education continue to be left on the table, especially in rural areas. Demand-driven extension and advisory services (EAS) – as a key institution educating rural people while providing agricultural advice and supplying inputs – have a critical role to play in bridging the education gap. This can help ensure that millions of young people successfully capitalise on opportunities in agriculture markets, as surveys in Rwanda and Uganda demonstrate.

The purpose of this article is to assess the inclusivity of on-farm demonstration across Europe, in relation to age, gender, and geographical location of participants. The paper is based on a survey of 1162 on-farm demonstrators (farmers and organisations) and three supraregional workshops. Overall, on farm-demonstrations were found to be engaging young(er) farmers who are at a career stage of being able to implement long-term innovations. However, across Europe demonstrations were primarily attended by men.

A bilateral project between the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC) and the Nepalese government, which ran from 2016 to 2020 and covered 61 municipalities in provinces 1, 3 (Bagmati) and 6 (Karnali), with technical support from the Swiss NGO Helvetas, aimed to promote a multi-stakeholder approach to agricultural services in Nepal.

The latest comprehensive research agenda in the Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension was published in 2012 (Faure, Desjeux, and Gasselin 2012), and since then there have been quite some developments in terms of biophysical, ecological, climatological, social, political and economic trends that impact farming and the transformation of agriculture and food systems at large as well as new potentially disruptive technologies.

The privatization of agricultural advisory and extension services in many countries and the associated pluralism of service providers has renewed interest in farmers’ use of fee-for-service advisors. Understanding farmers’ use of advisory services is important, given the role such services are expected to play in helping farmers address critical environmental and sustainability challenges. This paper aims to identify factors associated with farmers’ use of fee-for service advisors and bring fresh conceptualization to this topic.

The primary aim of this research was to examine the factors influencing behavioral intention of farmers to use ICTs for agricultural risk management. The past research reveals that many researchers had tried to determine factors affecting behavioural intentions of the respondents and TPB has been applied as technology acceptance model in various contexts. However, predicting behavioral intentions to use ICTs for agricultural risk management has not been evaluated from the actual field. Therefore, the data were collected from 360 farmers through multistage cluster sampling technique.

The two strategic documents for the future of Europe post 2020 (Green Deal) and agriculture in Europe (From Farm To Fork) recognize the important role of knowledge and innovation systems in accelerating change towards food sustainability. Researchers and advisors, together with the other actors of the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System, have the mandate to cooperate more closely to support all on this transition path. This includes stronger and more structured networking, increased information sharing and using digital tools to this effect.