Southeast Asia

This article in the Remote Sensing Journal highlights new opportunities for monitoring agriculture. Assessment and monitoring of rice agriculture over large areas has been limited by cloud cover, optical sensor spatial and temporal resolutions, and lack of systematic or open access radar. The use of dense time series of open access Sentinel-1 C-band data at moderate spatial resolution offers innovative opportunities for assessment and monitoring of agriculture. »

This report by OECD and FAO brings together the commodity, policy and country expertise of both organisations and input from collaborating member countries to provide an assessment of medium-term prospects of national, regionaland global agricultural commodity markets. The Outlook provides supply, demand, trade andprice estimates of major agricultural commodities for 41 countries and 12 geographical regions. The special theme chapter of this year’s edition focusses on the prospects and challenges of the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). »

This article, published in the Environmental Research Letters journal, presents a map of mean agricultural area, classified by the amount of land per farming household, at subnational resolutions across three key global regions using a novel integration of household microdata and agricultural landscape data. These data meet a critical need, as improved understanding of the prevalence and distribution of smallholder farming is essential for effective policy development for food security, poverty reduction, and conservation agendas. »

This publication aims to improve understanding of the potential benefits and challenges of agri-Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). It provides an analysis of 70 PPP cases gathered from 15 developing countries, together with evidence from FAO’s support to the review of PPP policies for agriculture in Southeast Asia and Central America. Agri-PPPs are expected to contribute to the pursuit of sustainable agricultural development that is inclusive of smallholder farmers. »

This conference report provides a snapshot of the rich content and discussions from the Roundtable on Inclusive Agribusiness in Southeast Asia, held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on 23–24 September 2015. The Roundtable brought together approximately 120 business leaders, key development practitioners, policy makers and research experts, largely from Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. »

This report by FAO explores the challenges and opportunities represented by the complex interrelationship between forests, agriculture and sustainable development. It demonstrates that the sustainable management of both forests and agriculture, and their integration in land-use plans, is essential for achieving the SDGs, ensuring food security and tackling climate change. »