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 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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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 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

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.