'In May 2008, the World Bank approved a new $1.2 billion rapid financing facility to address immediate needs arising from the food crisis. The Global Food Response Program (GFRP) aims to strike a balance between short-term food stabilization and measures to ensure countries are able to cope better in the medium term.
Under the program, countries can select from a menu of actions and investments most relevant to their individual situations, including programs to address price policies, social p more...

'The Agriculture Development Programme Support Project (ADP-SP) aims to improve the effectiveness of investments aimed at food security and sustainable agricultural growth. The global environmental objective is to strengthen the natural resource base in agricultural lands through doubling the area under sustainable land management as a basis for securing ecosystem services and sustainable agricultural productivity.'

'This paper examines the links between the risk of conflict and the production and trade of agricultural and marine commodities. It does so using a series of case studies: cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire, bananas and subsequently fisheries in Somalia, and cotton in Central Asia. Much like the traditional conflict resources (oil, diamonds, timber, minerals, etc.), there is strong evidence that fished and farmed commodities can also be (mis)used in such a way that their production and trade contribute t more...

Gender norms are an important constraint to increasing agricultural productivity. Inequality in the distribution of resources between men and women is linked with production inefficiency, yet interventions targeting smallholder farmers often fail to redress women's lack of access to, and control of, important agricultural resources.

This brief focuses on key agricultural resources needed by poor female farmers to generate incomes and ensure their families' food security. It is organized arou more...

The sharp increase in food prices over the past couple of
years has raised serious concerns about the food and nutrition
situation of people around the world, especially the poor
in developing countries; about inflation; and—in some
countries—about civil unrest. Although the relative influence
of various factors on global food price inflation remains
somewhat open to discussion and debate, the underlying
causes are increasingly well understood and noted at the
highest policymaking le more...

Steadily increasing prices could lead to a lack of affordable and nourishing food, endangering the lives of people living with HIV in the developing world, experts have said. 'As prices continue to rise, people will start to buy cheaper, less nutritious food and may begin to skip meals – in Lesotho we are already seeing people skipping meals because they can't afford food,' Alan Whiteside, an economist with South Africa's University of KwaZulu-Natal, told a press conference at the Internationa more...

The AGORA program, set up by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) together with major publishers, enables developing countries to gain access to an outstanding digital library collection in the fields of food, agriculture, environmental science and related social sciences. AGORA provides a collection of 1278 journals to institutions in 107 countries. AGORA is designed to enhance the scholarship of the many thousands of students, faculty and researchers in agriculture and life sc more...

In the 21st century, rural women in developing countries hold the key to the future of the Earth's agricultural systems and to food and livelihood security through their roles in the selection of seed, the management of small livestock and the conservation and sustainable use of plant and animal diversity. Rural women's key role as food providers and food producers links them directly to the management of genetic resources for food and agriculture and has given them unique knowledge of local spe more...

The FAO Plan of Action for Women in Development (1996-2001) defines the role the Organization will play in stimulating and facilitating efforts to increase the involvement of rural women as contributors and beneficiaries of economic, social and political development. In order to address the root causes of persistent poverty and food insecurity among rural women and the families they support as well as the factors contributing to degradation of the environment, the Plan pursues three strategic ob more...

Rural women have developed practices for the efficient and sustainable use of the resources available to them. Rural women make a tremendous contribution to food and agricultural production. They also play a crucial role in determining and guaranteeing food security and well-being for the entire household. Equitable, effective and sustainable agriculture and rural development cannot be pursued without an explicit recognition of these realities. In a global atmosphere of increasing poverty, food more...