State of Agricultural Extension reforms in India and the need of convergence
Extension reforms play a significant role in catalysing the extant policies and provisions that are affecting the extension service across India. Although the country has seen a series of reforms in the past seven decades, the changing contours of agriculture over the years demand new sets of interventions and reform measures. Regimes in the past decades have brought a series of measures to strengthen the extension system. The present study found that the most of the reforms were concentrated on a single theme and even the multiple reforms were overlapping with similar mandates. This resulted in poor performance and poor accessibility to the needy households. Moreover, during the pandemic the existing system reforms showed a fair amount of refinement. Therefore, the study highlights the importance of convergence across common themes of various interventions brought in to enhance the extension services.
- Published in EXTENSION AND INNOVATION, POLICY
School Food and Nutrition – Global Action Plan 2022–2026
This publication is the result of a collective effort, and includes contributions from relevant technical units of FAO across global, regional and country levels. The development of this plan follows the publication and dissemination of the Organization’s School Food and Nutrition Framework, and provides the implementation roadmap to attain its expected results.
The School food and nutrition – Global action plan seeks to consolidate and guide FAO’s synergistic efforts, setting out priority and concrete outputs to be achieved by 2026. Key activities are presented in the plan and organized according to the following action areas: 1. promote the uptake of and investment in holistic approaches to school food and nutrition (SFN); 2. enhance capacities to design, implement and monitor effective SFN interventions; 3. strengthen policy and legal frameworks that enable SFN implementation; and 4. mobilize resources for ensuring regular and better support to countries. These have been prioritized based on identified gaps and needs, and considering the Organization’s technical competence and organizational comparative advantage. Such activities are meant to be adapted, contextualized and implemented according to regional and national priorities.
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- Published in POLICY
Gender, tenure security, and landscape governance
Gender relations shape women’s and men’s identities, norms, rules, and responsibilities. They influence people’s access to, use, and management of land and other natural resources, including ownership, tenure, and user rights to land and forests. A substantial body of research on these issues comes from the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), through its Flagship 5 research theme. Flagship 5 focused on gender and social inclusion in relation to land and natural resource tenure and to landscape governance, and analyzed how tenure security affects sustainable management of land, water, fish stocks, and forests. This Food Policy Report reviews the scientific contributions from Flagship 5 to the broader wealth of related literature, including key lessons about gender from these studies with respect to outcomes and impacts on natural resource management, food security, and poverty alleviation.
- Published in POLICY
In Brief to The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022
The fisheries and aquaculture sectors have been increasingly recognized for their essential contribution to global food security and nutrition in the twenty-first century. Further expansion of this contribution requires the acceleration of transformative changes in policy, management, innovation and investment to achieve sustainable, inclusive and equitable global fisheries and aquaculture. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 20221 presents updated and verified statistics2 of the sector and analyses its international policy context and selected high-impact initiatives and actions undertaken to accelerate international efforts to support achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. It looks at the impact and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on fisheries and aquaculture production, utilization and trade.
- Published in LIVESTOCK / FISHERIES, POLICY
Bangladesh: DIEM – Data in Emergencies Monitoring brief
This Data in Emergencies Monitoring (DIEM-Monitoring) brief shares the results of a fifth-round field assessment conducted between March and April 2022 in Bangladesh. It presents key findings and recommendations for humanitarian actors to utilize in planning and implementing data-driven programming to sustain farmers’ livelihoods and build their resilience to future shocks – protecting the food security of rural people in Bangladesh.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) established the DIEM-Monitoring System to collect, analyse and disseminate data on shocks and livelihoods in countries prone to multiple shocks. DIEM-Monitoring aims to inform decision making by providing regularly updated information on how different shocks are affecting the livelihoods and food security of agricultural populations. Information is collected from primary sources in the production process: producers, traders or marketers, input suppliers, extension officers and other key informants.
Research Series 73: Food systems and rural wellbeing: challenges and opportunities
This paper provides a framework for assessing the dynamics of rural wellbeing and food systems change. It provides a synthesis of over 840 recommendations made in recent international reports on the linkages between food systems and rural development. It also looks at the viability of small-scale farming and the diversification of livelihood options needed to overcome rural poverty and inequality.
- Published in POLICY
24-hour Global Marathon for Sustainability – Food for Earth (2021)
The publication aims at gathering the multilingual work sessions spread out across the globe, all focusing on the regenerative power of food systems. Overall, the 2021 Marathon had a fantastic global impact, bringing together more than 160 expert voices, in 30 main work sessions, in English, French, Italian and Spanish, reaching more than 150 000 views worldwide, and a global coverage from over 100 online journals, TV channels and networks. In addition, ministers and government representatives from more than 30 countries contributed and endorsed the event. As a result, participating countries have proposed and committed to implement more than 100 climate actions.
- Published in POLICY
ICAR: Restructured and Revised Syllabi of Post Graduate Programmes (in Agriculture and Allied Sciences)
This document contains the new and revised syllabi for post-graduate programmes of 79 Disciplines in Agriculture and Allied Sciences including AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION (for both MSc and PhD programmes). This new syllabi is being implemented in all Universities across India from the academic year 2021-22.
The National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) and the Agricultural Extension in South Asia (AESA) Network played a pivotal role in development of the agricultural extension syllabus by integrating our efforts with the ICAR sub-committee on Agricultural Extension constituted by ICAR (under the ICAR Broad Subject Matter Area [BSMA] for Social Sciences).
- Published in POLICY
Repurposing Agricultural Policies and Support
The report finds that repurposing a portion of government spending on agriculture each year to develop and disseminate more emission-efficient technologies for crops and livestock could reduce overall emissions from agriculture by more than 40 percent. Meanwhile, millions of hectares of land could be restored to natural habitats. The economic payoffs to this type of repurposing would be large. Redirecting about $70 billion a year, equivalent to one percent of global agricultural output, would yield a net benefit of over $2 trillion in 20 years.
- Published in POLICY
Case study: Innovations in financial inclusion, including microinsurance
The Programme has been able to build resilience and promote sustainable livelihoods among fishers and coastal communities through supporting enterprise development, introducing risk-mitigation instruments and establishing resource-management systems that are owned and operated by poor communities.
The project has achieved this through developing self-sustaining community institutions and innovative public private partnership. The case study aims to inform development practitioners on the processes and lessons learnt in implementing the key innovations in financial inclusion including risk mitigation instruments tailored to rural communities in this case small-scale fishers.










