World agriculture: towards 2015/2030 is FAO’s latest assessment of the long-term outlook for the world’s food supplies, nutrition and agriculture. It presents the projections and the main messages. The projections cover supply and demand for the major agricultural commodities and sectors, including fisheries and forestry. This analysis forms the basis for a more detailed examination of other factors, such as nutrition and undernourishment, and the implications for international trade.

The pressing need for increased agricultural production in the years ahead can only be met by more efficient use of our land and water resources including more widespread and better irrigation in those regions where rainfall is inadequate. Production gains will be shortlived unless the attendant hazards of salinization, water logging and lowered fertility are kept in check by effective planning and management based on a thorough understanding of the soil conditions. Soil survey and land classification are generally accepted essential preliminaries to investment in irrigation development.

Todos los datos estadisticos confirman que la agricultura es el sector clava para el manejo del agua, tanto en la actualidad como en las próximas décadas. Sin embargo, el sector del desarrollo rural del agua en el momento actual enfrenta dificultades, comparado con otros sectores competitivos, para obtener la prioridad que merece en los foros internacionales. Son necesarios argumentos nuevos y fuertes para dar al agua en la agricultura el lugar que le corresponde. Las prespectivas para el futuro son claras.

This brief describes the broad array of impacts arising from a cash transfer programme that was piloted in the Tigray region of Ethiopia from 2011 to 2014. About 80 percent of Tigray’s population of 4.3 million live in rural areas and depend on rain-fed subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods. Farm families in Tigray tend to have small land holdings and limited productive inputs such as labour, oxen, seeds and fertilizers. Severe drought has repeatedly struck the northern Tigray region and has had a major effect on agricultural productivity.

One of the guiding mandates within the FAO Constitution is the following: “The Organization shall promote and, where appropriate, shall recommend national and international action with respect to: … the conservation of natural resources and the adoption of improved methods of agricultural production ...”. In many African countries, in addition to low yields, food production is limited by the availability of land and water resources.

In its recent examination of global water scarcity (1997) the United Nations system identified water quality as one of the key concerns in Asia in the next century. This concern is based on the fact that water quality degradation is so severe in many Asian countries that it is placing serious constraints on economic growth; it continues to be a serious problem for human health and it is causing widespread negative environmental effects.

Extensive grazing is the predominant form of land use on at least a quarter of the world’s land surface, in which livestock are raised on food that comes mainly from rangelands. Extensive grazing differs from crop or forestry production, in which the produce remains in situ whilst growing. Evaluation for extensive grazing, unlike that for cropping or forestry, must take into account the production of both grazing forage, termed primary production, and the livestock that feed on this forage, termed secondary production.

Meeting symbol/code: LARC 00 3

Land Tenure Working Paper 17. This publication identifies and assesses issues related to land governance and provides examples of good governance in the Caribbean subregion. This working paper was done in light of FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources.