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  1. These guidelines aim to measure harvest and post-harvest losses for food grains (cereals and pulses). They presentFAO’srecommended methods to estimate food grain losses to allow countries to monitor SDG 12.3.1 (food losses along the supply chain).They present cost-effective methods that could be...
  2. The increasing degree and extent of soil degradation processes due to mismanagement and land use changes are threatening our soils. Urgent action is needed to reverse this trend if we are to ensure the necessary food production for future generations, mitigation of climate change, provision of...
  3. FAO actions FAO operates a centralizedDesert Locust Information Service (DLIS)within the Locust Group at FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy that monitors the Desert Locust situation throughout the world. FAO provides information on the general locust situation to the global community and givestimely...
  4. In broad terms, land tenure rights are often classified according to whether they are “formal” or “informal”. There can be perceptual problems with this approach because, for example, some so-called informal rights may, in practice, be quite formal and secure in their own context. Despite these...
  5. Agriculture holds the key to successfully achieving the objectives and aspirations articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. It is also crucial to the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers and rural communities worldwide....
  6. Abstract, FAO, 1999 Some of the wide range of feed materials suitable for poultry in developing countries is listed in the order of their availability to small holders. Most are already fully utilised. A simple method for determining the amount of feed material available in a region for a chicken...
  7. It is estimated that some 10,000 plant species are used medicinally, most of these are used in traditional systems of medicine. However, only a relatively small number of species are used in any significant volume. For example, in TCM, 9,905 botanical materials are used but only an estimated 500...
  8. It is difficult to rate the importance of the different soil functions, since all are vital to our well-being, to some extent. However, the function ofsupportingfood andagricultureworldwide is fundamental for the preservation and advancement of human life on this planet. Soil is also the basis...
  9. TheInternational Union of Soil Science (IUSS)- at its Seventh Congress, at Madison, Wisconsin, USA, in 1960 - recommended that soil maps of continents and large regions be published. As a follow-upFAO and Unesco decided in 1961 to prepare a Soil Map of the World at 1:5 000 000 scale. The project...
  10. At the beginning of the year we took a tour of6 incredible plants you might not have heard of. Diets worldwide – from forest roots and leaves such as the moringa in Africa and parts of Asia to cardoon, the close relative of the artichoke in Europe – are varied, suited to local environment and can...