Knowledge Portal

This paper by FAO and KIT presents a synthesis of deliberations, and a set of policy recommendations and priority actions for pluralistic service systems (PSS). A growing variety of public and private agricultural advisory services are available today, leading to increasingly PSS. PSS hold the potential to overcome constraints related to funding, staffing and expertise, and making advisory services more demand-driven. But are PSS really able to reach the millions of farmers in need of services? »

This article elaborates on the decision-making of Indonesian smallholder farmers and their impact on ecological functions. It finds that land-use choices of Indonesian smallholders predominantly favor farm portfolios with high economic productivity but low ecological value. Smallholder-dominated agricultural mosaic landscapes are highlighted as model production systems that deliver both economic and ecological goods in tropical agricultural landscapes, but trade-offs underlying current land-use dynamics are poorly known. »

This report calls on the private sector to invest in closing gaps between men and women in agribusiness as it sees potential benefits from closing gender gaps for companies. For each stage in the value chain, the report helps companies identify potential benefits from closing gender gaps. The authors accomplished this by reviewing women’s contributions and constraints within each stage, outlining solutions for the private sector, demonstrating the business rationale for making gender-smart investments, and presenting best-practice case studies. »

This working paper provides insight in how mobile technology can support nutrition and agricultural interventions. While the interest is growing in the use of mobile phones for nutrition behavior change interventions in LMICs, hard evidence is very limited, methodologically weak and often based anecdotal findings. Therefore this study reviews a number of cases where mobile technology interventions were used and summarizes the lessons learned from this. »

This report explores the contribution that trade and trade policy could make to the hunger and malnutrition objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The paper looks at past progress and projected trends, and examines options for government action in the years ahead. Projections indicate that governments must now go beyond a “business as usual” approach if the new hunger and nutrition goals are to be achieved. »

This compendium is designed to assist officers responsible for designing nutrition-sensitive food and agriculture investments in selecting appropriate indicators to monitor if these investments are having an impact on nutrition and through which pathways. The guide is for those responsible for the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of investment projects in food and agriculture (including and in addition to value chains, social development, and rural development) that need to demonstrate that they lead to intermediary results toward improved nutrition. »