Report

This SOFA report acknowledges the need to reduce food loss and waste, presents new insights on what is known and what is not, and provides guidance on how to target interventions and policies depending on policymakers’ objectives and the information available.The report also offers a comprehensive analysis of the critical loss points in specific supply chains, thus providing examples on appropriate measures for an effective reduction. »

This study reviews the opportunities and challenges facing rural youth in the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia (NEN) region and suggests a number of programmes and policy priorities that governments can take into consideration. Arguably, the most important issue facing rural youth in the NEN region today is weak job creation. »

This review identified opportunities for action that could contribute to systemic change that improves diet quality, particularly for nutritionally vulnerable people in low income settings. The review summarizes research findings and presents future research opportunities, as well as several cross-cutting issues that have implications across the food system. »

This research report presents results of a search for policies and conditions that can help accelerate agricultural development in Africa. This development has been limited in many countries, as evinced by extreme low fertilizer use, low crop yields, poverty and high food insecurity. A hopeful tendency emerges from this study: African agricultural development is taking off in response to population growth, as is shown by the cereal yield and fertilizer use adoption trends in many countries. »

This report analyzes the changing landscape of rural agricultural finance. With the changes comes an urgent need to develop improved frameworks for understanding the state of the sector. To do so, the authors introduce new models for understanding how rural clients, financial service providers, and the capital markets can effectively work together. »

This report examined the imperative role of fruits and vegetables in combating malnutrition in Tanzania. The major barrier to individual and household consumption of fruits and vegetables was lack of knowledge, including a basic misunderstanding of nutritional needs versus hunger, generational misinformation on cooking vegetables too long to cleanse them of pesticides, and taboos concerning the effects of certain vegetables on male reproductive health. »