In 2022, the Rural Development Administration(RDA) of the Republic of Korea through its Asian Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (AFACI), launched a project “Improvement of Rural Agricultural Technology Extension System in Asia (RATES)” to strengthen extension systems in 12 Asian countries. The Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) is a partner in this initiative and its regional network in Asia, the Asia-Pacific Islands Rural Advisory Services (APIRAS) is supporting the implementation of the RATES project. One of its early activities was to make an assessment of the EAS system in these countries. This brief is based on the assessment of EAS, especially focussing on the role of public EAS in these countries, the challenges they face, and identifying some of the potential ways forward to enhance the contributions of EAS.

Timely, accurate and high-quality data and statistics are the cornerstone of solid policy design, where decisions are based on hard evidence, and monitoring and evaluation rely on strong statistical systems. This has become all the more critical as governments around the world commit to major sectoral and national development plans, as well as regional and global development agendas. Statistical work has been at the core of the activities and mandate of the Food and Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations (FAO) since the Organization was founded in 1945, supporting its Members in eliminating hunger, improving nutrition, eradicating rural poverty, and promoting inclusive and efficient agrifood systems. FAO is aleading provider of internationally comparable data on food, nutrition and agriculture, which are gathered from national statistical offices and from FAO’s network of partner agencies and are harmonized to paint a global picture. All of these data are summarized in this Statistical Yearbook. The Statistical Yearbook is a primary tool and indispensable reference for policymakers, researchers and analysts, as well as laypersons interested in the past, present and future paths of food and agriculture.

Despite significant previous progress, the world is off track to end hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Degraded ecosystems, an intensifying climate crisis, and increased biodiversity loss are threatening jobs, economies, the environment and food security around the globe, all aggravated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, crises and other humanitarian emergencies. Today, 811 million people suffer from hunger and 3 billion cannot afford healthy diets. This has elevated the calls to urgently transform our agrifood systems to ensure food security, improve nutrition and secure affordable healthy diets for a growing population, while safeguarding livelihoods and our natural resources. Aquatic foods are increasingly recognized for their key role in food security and nutrition, not just as a source of protein, but also as aunique and extremely diverse provider of essential omega-3 fatty acids and bioavailable micronutrients. 

The year 2020 marks a milestone in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With just 10 more years to go, we need to accelerate in order to achieve the SDGs. Before COVID-19 outbreak, “protecting the Planet while ensuring Food Security” was priority number one in the international community. Meanwhile, we have realized that Food Systems are very complex and no matter the angle of intervention, the number of goals we have to achieve remains very high. From input management, to production patterns, food losses and waste, policy making at all levels has to guarantee enough food for an increasing world population, while coping with the effects of climate change, resource depletion and malnutrition, among others.

This note collects the experience of a virtual rural extension initiative that initiated at the beginning of 2021,from a virtual meeting of the network Extensión para Extensionistas about the challenges of agricultural family businesses. After the event, the Agricultural Plan Institute of Uruguay proposes a joint activity with INTA Argentina and Extensión para Extensionistas, and it is agreed to hold virtual meetings for producers and professionals around the same topic. This note describes the context of the experience, objectives, methodology, results, challenges, and learning, to encourage its adaptation and replication in other contexts. The problems of family businesses transcend borders, scales, environments, and areas. Within the agricultural sector, family businesses represent 80% of the productive units that contribute to the economic development of Argentina and Uruguay. This initiative forms a virtual community where the target audience is the owners, partners, founders, advisors, managers, potential successors, and anyone interested in issues related to the family business, without distinction of gender or age, in the agricultural sector of these countries.

Grasslands stretch across the planet, their apparent simplicity masking their ecological, climatic and social importance and complexity. These undervalued and overlooked landscapes are fundamental to planetary and human health. Protecting them is not merely an urgent mandate; it is central to numerous global challenges. Realizing the hidden value of grasslands provides an opportunity to bolster environmental stability and human development in the crucial decades ahead. 

Over the years, Uganda has made significant progress in reducing poverty. Nonetheless, in densely populated rural areas the incidence is still high, with as much as 30 per cent of the population living below the national rural poverty line. IFAD is working with the Government of Uganda to increase the income of rural households living in poverty and improve their food security and resilience. These projects create opportunities, increase access to markets, provide training and mentoring, enable participants to develop alternative sources of income, empower women and build rural people’s resilience.

Global efforts to tackle the climate crisis must address its impacts on people, particularly the most vulnerable. Because of their reliance on weather-dependent agriculture and agrifood systems, climate change has a profound impact on the incomes and livelihoods of rural people living in low- and middle-income countries. However, policy attention and funding for vulnerable rural people falls woefully short of actual needs. In 2017/18, only 1.7 percent of global tracked financing reached small-scale producers, while only 3 percent supported climate adaptation in agriculture, forestry and other land uses. Rural people’s vulnerabilities to climate change are strongly influenced by a person’s wealth, gender and age. These factors also affect their abilities to manage the impacts of climate stressors on their livelihoods and determine the type of adaptive actions they take.

In the face of escalating global challenges – lack of food availability, food accessibility and food affordability due to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, economic slowdowns and downturns, worsening poverty, and other overlapping crises –we find ourselves standing at a critical juncture. The choices we make now, the priorities we set and the solutions we implement will determine the trajectory of our shared future. Consequently, the decisions we make about global agrifood systems must acknowledge these interrelated challenges.mThere is increased international consensus that transforming agrifood systems to increase their efficiency, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability is an essential comprehensive designfor realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This study assessed the opinion of agricultural extension workers on the privatization of agricultural extension services in Ondo State, Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique was used in collecting primary data from 90 out of 112 extension workers in the Ondo State Agricultural Development Programme, through the use of a validated questionnaire. Data were analysed using percentage and mean statistics. The majority (55.6%) of extension professionals asserted that agricultural extension services should not be privatized. The major reasons adduced to this were the fear that privatization could lead to the loss of jobs among the extension professionals (100%) and also the belief that it is the responsibility of the government to cater for farmers (100%). The average amount proposed by the few respondents if extension services should be privatized, ranges from a minimum of ₦100 - ₦400. The proposed areas where extension should be privatized are where and when to sell their products and technical advice on farming activities (crops and livestock). Since farmers will be the ones to bear the consequences of privatisation, the government should ensure total overhauling of the extension system before experimenting with the payment for extension services in phases and with utmost caution.

Our very existence depends on water – water to drink and water to grow food. Agriculture relies on freshwater from rivers, lakes and aquifers. Rainfed agriculture and much of livestock production depend on the water from limited rainfall. Moreover, water-related ecosystems also sustain livelihoods, food security and nutrition by, inter alia, supporting inland fisheries and aquaculture. Supplies of uncontaminated freshwater are needed for safe drinking water, and to ensure hygiene and food safety standards to guarantee human health. In addition, water has numerous other uses and supports other human activities. Against this backdrop, no doubt, water underpins many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 6, in particular, seeks to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Unfortunately, this report shows that achieving this objective by 2030 will be a challenge.

In the two years that have passed since the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit, the global food system has seen profound shifts.  Now, 18 months after the summit, Farm Radio International, in partnership with eight radio stations in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda, revisited the questions that small-scale farmers, vendors, processors, marketers and their communities were asked 2021 to see what, if anything, has changed. Nearly 50,000 responses were recorded, as people shared their concerns and solutions for creating a healthier, more sustainable, productive and equitable food system.This research was conducted in collaboration with and with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and additional funding from World Vision Canada, the Canadian Food Security Policy Group and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.