Agriculture key to addressing future water and energy needs

As pressure on the world’s water resources reaches unsustainable levels in an increasing number of regions, a "business-as-usual" approach to economic development and natural resource management will no longer be possible, FAO today ( 17 November 2011 ) told participants at an international meeting on water, energy and food security being held in Bonn.

The Learning Center offers self-paced e-learning courses on a wide range of Food Security related topics. The courses have been designed and developed by international experts to support capacity building and on-the-job training at national and local food security information systems and networks. More details can be found on the courses page.

In this section you will find an online course which will guide you through the concepts applied in this website. After completing the course, you will have learned how to apply the different participatory approaches and methods in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects. We recommend you take this course first so you will make better use of this website.

Agricultural ecosystems sustain life. They supply food and drinking water, maintain a library of genetic resources, preserve and regenerate soils, recycle nutrients... The provision of these services depends critically on the management decisions taken by farmers, fishermen and forest managers.
This website aims to disseminate information on the potential of agriculture to improve the provision of environmental services though Payments for Environmental Services (PES) programmes, as incentives for improved land management.

Capacity Development is at the heart of FAO's mandate. The Capacity Development Portal contributes to FAO's vision of strengthening the national capacities of its Member Countries to achieve their own goals in the areas of food security and agricultural development. Through its learning resources and learning services, the Portal addresses the needs of individuals in rural communities, in organizations and institutions, and at policy level.
This Portal is designed for FAO staff, collaborators, partners, Member Countries and other international, national and local development actors to access knowledge, information, tools, good practices, and services related to Capacity Development in FAO's mandate areas. The Portal provides links to FAO's Thematic Areas that feature Capacity Development as critical for the success of their programmes. The Portal also points to the principal external resources from within the UN and the broader international development community.

The State of Food and Agriculture, FAO’s major annual flagship publication, aims at bringing to a wider audience balanced science-based assessments of important issues in the field of food and agriculture. Each edition of the report contains a comprehensive, yet easily accessible, overview of a selected topic of major relevance for rural and agricultural development and for global food security. This is supplemented by a synthetic overview of the current global agricultural situation.

The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets is a biennial publication that is intended to expand FAO's existing series of “The State of …” reports. While the findings and conclusions presented rely on technical analysis by FAO commodity and trade specialists, this is not a technical report. Rather, it aims to present commodity market issues in an objective, transparent and accessible way to the attention of a wider public, including policy-makers, commodity market observers and all those interested in commodity market developments and their impact on developing countries.

The FAO Statistical Yearbook provides a selection of indicators on food and agriculture by country. The data are drawn from FAOSTAT statistical database, as well as several FAO divisions and other sources within the UN system.
FAOSTAT is based on data submitted by member countries in response to standard questionnaires, supplemented by a review of national sources and estimates or imputations to cover critical gaps. It brings together data from different domains and sources, and provides time series and cross sectional data relating to food and agriculture.
The new series of the FAO Statistical Yearbook started in 2004. It covers a wide spectrum of statistics and indicators belonging to several thematic topics. It serves as a reference guide to economists, policy-makers and analysts.

Economic and Social Perspectives provide guidance on today’s global policy challenges related to food and agriculture. Written in non-technical language, they explain why policy makers need to address a particular issue and how they might do so.