In addition to global events and food policy changes, 2015 also saw important developments with potentially wide repercussions in individual countries and regions. This chapter offers perspectives on major food policy developments across the major regions: Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

As climate change makes precipitation shocks more common, policymakers are becoming increasingly interested in protecting food systems and nutrition outcomes from the damaging effects of droughts and floods (Wheeler and von Braun, 2013). Increasing the resilience of nutrition and food security outcomes is especially critical throughout agrarian parts of the developing world, where human subsistence and well-being are directly affected by local rainfall.

Demand for organic basmati rice (OBR), both at home and abroad, coupled with policy reforms in India have given rise to contract farming (CF) production in that nation. OBR production, however, is highly susceptible to weather and pest risks. This study investigates the impact of smallholders’ perceived production risks on their adoption of CF in OBR farming. We also assess the impact of CF in OBR production on yields, prices received, and the livelihood of OBR producers.

This paper assesses the role of the private sector by using the case study of Cambodia to learn specific lessons for increasing the resilience of food systems in the developing world. In order to develop a sustainable and lasting impact, it is imperative that both market actors and private actors be involved in addressing the new challenges facing vulnerable food systems.

Existing approaches and methodologies that investigate effects of land degradation on food security vary greatly. Although a relatively rich body of literature that investigates localized experiences, geophysical and socioeconomic drivers of land degradation, and the costs and benefits of avoiding land degradation already exists, less rigorously explored are the global effects of restoring degraded landscapes.

The results of this study reveal that the full inclusion of crop production in the forest landscape restoration approach could produce largescale,
worldwide benefits for food security and therefore facilitate a wide uptake of restoration practices and the implementation of large
restoration projects. The positive impacts are multifaceted and significant in size: a reduction in malnourished children ranging from three
to six million; a reduced number of people at risk of hunger, estimated to be between 70 and 151 million; reduced pressure for expansion