This Quick Reference Guide complements the “Contract Farming Handbook – A Practical Guide for Linking Small-Scale Producers and Buyers through Business Model Innovation” of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). The GIZ methodology provides a hands-on and process-oriented approach for practitioners interested in upgrading existing or developing new contract farming schemes that are inclusive for small-scale producers and their farmer organisations.
The “Green Innovation Centres for the agriculture and food sector” (GIC) project, implemented by the GIZ, aims to enhance the agricultural value chains in various countries by promoting sustainable practices and innovations. The “Atingi”-platform, which was created as part of the project, can be seen as a knowledge hub that provides access to the various knowledge outputs of the initiative.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development cooperation (BMZ) commissioned the Global Project “Green Innovation Centers for the Food and Agriculture Sector” (GIC) to intensify measures to combat Post Harvest Losses (PHL). In this context, a study on the economic sustainability of post-harvest investments has been conducted in June 2023. The objective of this study is to provide an objective and economically differentiated analysis of investments targeting PHL in the selected partner 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.