- Home
- A-Z Publications
- The State of Food and Agriculture
The State of Food and Agriculture
The State of Food and Agriculture, FAOs major annual flagship publication, aims at bringing to wider audience balanced science-based assessments of important issues in the field of food and agriculture. Each edition of the report contains comprehensive, yet easily accessible, overview of selected topics of major relevance for rural and agriculture development and for global food security.
Filter :
Sustainable Development Goals
Subject
Publication date

The State of Food and Agriculture 2019
Moving Forward on Food Loss and Waste Reduction
This year's edition provides new estimates of the percentage of the world's food lost from production up to the retail level. It suggests that identifying and understanding critical loss points in specific supply chains – where considerable potential exists for reducing food losses – is crucial to deciding on appropriate measures. It also provides some guiding principles for interventions based on the objectives being pursued through food loss and waste reductions be they in improved economic efficiency food security and nutrition or environmental sustainability.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2018
Migration, Agriculture and Rural Development
Migration is an expanding global reality one that allows millions of people to seek new opportunities. But it also involves challenges for migrants and for societies both in areas of origin and of destination. This report analyses migratory flows – internal and international – and how they are linked to processes of economic development demographic change and natural-resource pressure. The focus is on rural migration the many forms it takes and the important role it plays in both developing and developed countries. The report investigates the drivers and impacts of rural migration and highlights how related policy priorities depend on country contexts that are in continuous evolution. These priorities will be different for countries in protracted crises countries where rural youth employment is a challenge countries in economic and demographic transition and developed countries in need of migrant workers not least to support agriculture and rural economies.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2017
Leveraging Food Systems for Inclusive Rural Transformation
One of the greatest challenges today is to end hunger and poverty while making agriculture and food systems sustainable. The challenge is daunting because of continued population growth profound changes in food demand and the threat of mass migration of rural youth in search of a better life. This report presents strategies that can leverage the potential of food systems to become the engine of inclusive economic development and rural prosperity in low-income countries. It analyses the structural and rural transformations now under way and examines the opportunities and challenges they present to millions of small-scale food producers. It shows how an “agroterritorial” planning approach focused on connecting cities and towns and their surrounding rural areas combined with agro-industrial and infrastructure development can generate income opportunities throughout the food sector and underpin sustainable and inclusive rural transformation.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2016
Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
The Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015 represents a new beginning in the global effort to stabilize the climate before it is too late. It recognizes the importance of food security in the international response to climate change as reflected by many countries focusing prominently on the agriculture sector in their planned contributions to adaptation and mitigation. To help put those plans into action this report identifies strategies financing opportunities and data and information needs. It also describes transformative policies and institutions that can overcome barriers to implementation.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2015
Social Protection and Agriculture - Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on reducing poverty have been met by many countries yet many others lag behind and the post-2015 challenge will be the full eradication of poverty and hunger. Many developing countries increasingly recognize that social protection measures are needed to relieve the immediate deprivation of people living in poverty and to prevent others from falling into poverty when a crisis strikes. This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 makes the case that social protection measures will help break the cycle of rural poverty and vulnerability when combined with broader agricultural and rural development measures.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2014
Innovation in Family Farming
More than 500 million family farms manage the majority of the world’s agricultural land and produce most of the world’s food. We need family farms to ensure global food security to care for and protect the natural environment and to end poverty undernourishment and malnutrition. But these goals can be thoroughly achieved if public policies support family farms to become more productive and sustainable. This edition of the The State of Food and Agriculture analyses family farms and the role of innovation in ensuring global food security poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. It argues that family farms must be supported to innovate in ways that promote sustainable intensification of production and improvements in rural livelihoods. Innovation is a process through which farmers improve their production and farm management practices.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2013
Food Systems for Better Nutrition
Malnutrition in all its forms -- undernutrition micronutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity -- imposes unacceptably high economic and social costs on countries at all income levels. This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture argues that improving nutrition and reducing these costs must begin with food and agriculture. The traditional role of agriculture in producing food and generating income is fundamental but agriculture and the entire food system -- from inputs and production through processing storage transport and retailing to consumption -- can contribute much more to the eradication of malnutrition.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2012
Investing in Agriculture for a Better Future
This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture shows that farmers are the largest investors in developing country agriculture and argues therefore that farmers and their investment decisions must be central to any strategy aimed at improving agricultural investment. The report also presents evidence showing how public resources can be used more effectively to catalyse private investment especially by farmers themselves and to channel public and private resources towards more socially beneficial outcomes. The focus of this report is on the accumulation of capital by farmers in agriculture and the investments made by governments to facilitate this accumulation.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-2011
Women in Agriculture - Closing the Gender Gap for Development
This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture makes the “business case” for addressing gender issues in agriculture and rural employment. The agriculture sector is underperforming in many developing countries in part because women do not have equal access to the resources and opportunities they need to be more productive. The gender gap imposes real costs on society in terms of lost agricultural output food security and economic growth. Promoting gender equality is not only good for women; it is also good for agricultural development.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2009
Livestock in the Balance
This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture is published at a crucial point in time. The world is going through a financial turbulence that has led to a serious economic setback. But this must not mask the global food crisis that has shaken the international agricultural economy and proven the fragility of the global agricultural system. This report discusses the most critical challenges and opportunities facing the sector. It highlights systemic risks and failures resulting from a process of growth and transformation that has outpaced the capacity and willingness of governments and societies to control and regulate. It tries to identify issues that require solutions at various levels to allow livestock sector to meet society’s expectations in the future in terms of provision of both private and public goods. The issue of governance is central. Identifying and defining the appropriate role of government in its broadest sense is the cornerstone on which future development of the livestock sector must build.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2008
Biofuels - Prospects, Risks and Opportunities
The publication surveys the current status of the biofuel debate exploring implications for food security the environment and agricultural development in developing countries. It addresses the biophysical and economic potential of 1st and 2nd generation biofuels and its implications on agricultural development poverty and hunger. The publication also explores policy options and contains an overview of the current global agricultural situation including data on agricultural production food consumption and agricultural trade.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2007
Paying Farmers for Environmental Services
The State of Food and Agriculture 2007 explores the potential for agriculture to provide enhanced levels of environmental services alongside the production of food and fibre. The report concludes that demand for environmental services from agriculture – including climate change mitigation improved watershed management and biodiversity preservation – will increase in the future but better incentives to farmers are needed if agriculture is to meet this demand.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2006
Food Aid for Food Security?
The State of Food and Agriculture 2006 examines the issues and controversies surrounding international food aid and seeks to find ways to preserve its essential humanitarian role while minimizing the possibility of harmful secondary impacts. Food aid has rightly been credited with saving millions of lives; indeed it is often the only thing standing between vulnerable people and death. Yet food aid is sharply criticized as a donor-driven response that creates dependency on the part of recipients and undermines local agricultural producers and traders upon whom sustainable food security depends. Reforms to the international food aid system are necessary but they should be undertaken carefully because lives are at risk.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2005
Agriculture Trade and Poverty - Can Trade Work for the Poor?
The report examines the many ways in which trade liberalization and agricultural trade affect the poor and food-insecure. Trade can be a catalyst for change promoting conditions that enable the poor to raise their incomes and live longer healthier and more productive lives but these positive results are not guaranteed. The poor are particularly vulnerable in any reform process especially in the short run as productive sectors and labour markets adjust. Complementary policy measures are needed to enable the poor to take advantage of the opportunities offered by trade and safety nets are required to protect the most vulnerable from trade-related shocks.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2003-2004
Agricultural Biotechnology - Meeting the Needs of the Poor?
The potential of agricultural biotechnology especially transgenic crops to meet the needs of the poor is explored in this report. An analysis of the socio-economic impacts of technological change in agriculture is discussed and the safety of transgenic crops for human health and the environment is examined.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2002
Agriculture and Global Public Goods Ten Years after the Earth Summit
In addition to the usual review of the recent food and agriculture situation each issue of The State of Food and Agriculture has included one or more special studies of problems of longer-term interest. This year’s edition focuses on agriculture and global public goods ten years after the earth summit.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2001
In addition to the usual review of the recent world food and agriculture situation each issue of The State of Food and Agriculture has included one or more special studies of problems of longer-term interest. This year’s edition features a review of the existing evidence on the link between nutrition and productivity and economic growth.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2000
Lessons from the Past 50 Years
The close of a millennium is an opportune time for studying the past with a view to seeking lessons for the future. So in addition to the usual review of the recent world food and agriculture situation this year’s edition of The State of Food and Agriculture includes a special chapter that reflects on humankind’s achievements and failures in fighting poverty and hunger over the past half-century - a theme that stimulates both historic and prospective thought

The State of Food and Agriculture 1999
This year’s edition of The State of Food and Agriculture was not published in its traditional format. Instead a document (The State of Food and Agriculture C99/2) and a set of graphs and figures summarizing the main features of the current world food and agriculture situation were presented at the 30th session of the FAO Conference in November 1999.

The State of Food and Agriculture 1998
Rural Non-Farm Income in Developing Countries
In addition to the usual review of the recent world food and agriculture situation each issue of The State of Food and Agriculture from 1957 has included one or more special studies of problems of longer-term interest. This year’s edition focuses on rural non-farm income in developing countries.