Indonesia is an archipelago consisting of 13,466 islands, which are divided into 33 provinces. Java, Bali, and Nusa Tenggara are the inner islands and contain 62 percent of the total population of 246 million, but only accounts for 8 percent of the total land area. The inner islands are naturally more fertile than the outer islands that have nutrient-poor, acidic soils. In theory, fertilizer use should be higher on the outer islands, but in reality outer island fertilizer use is generally lower, making crop yields lower, especially when compared to Java.

The Republic of Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked country where nearly 65 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Wheat is the staple crop in Kyrgyzstan; however, average wheat yields were just 2.4 metric tons (MT)/ha as of 2013, which is well below potential yield estimates of 5.5 MT/ ha. The country is classified by the UN FAO as a low-income, food-deficit country that relies on wheat imports from Kazakhstan and Russia to cover 25 percent of its consumption requirements.

The contribution of chemical fertilizers towards increased agricultural production is well established. Indian agricultural policy focused on increasing productivity and modern inputs such as improved seeds (HYVs), irrigation, chemical fertilizers, etc. have played an important role in increasing crop production and productivity. Increased fertilizer use will continue to play an important role in increasing agricultural productivity given the diminishing land available for cultivation.

The Ghana Agriculture Production Survey (GAPS) undertaken by the Statistics, Research and Information Directorate (SRID) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is designed to provide data on community amenities, characteristics of farm families, utilization of land, use of inputs, outputs of major agricultural commodities, post-farm activities, household incomes, health of farm families, and health of farm animals on an annual basis.

This first annual trends and outlook (ATOR) report for Swaziland assesses the performance of the agriculture sector in terms of investment, growth, and poverty and hunger outcomes over the period 2000–2011. The need for monitoring arises from the fact, that Swaziland and other African countries need to regularly assess whether or not they are making good on their commitments in terms of national development targets and regionally agreed development targets; and provide such information to various state and non–state actors and stakeholders at national and regional levels.

Book chapter

Book chapter

In 2003, the Maputo Declaration of the African Union stated that, within five years, 10 per cent of budgets of member states would be dedicated to agriculture. Ten years on, despite spending increases by some countries African governments still allocate an average of only 4 per cent of their national budgets to agriculture. Only eight out of 54 countries under the African Union have consistently reached the 10 per cent target.

En 2009, l’UE s’est fixé comme objectif de porter à 10 % la part des énergies renouvelables dans sa consommation énergétique d’ici 2020. Dans le secteur des transports, cela s’est traduit par une législation qui promeut l’utilisation des carburants d’origine végétale : les agrocarburants.

CIHEAM - Watch Letter N.28 released: "Land Issues in the Mediterranean Countries"

Since 2007 CIHEAM is publishing a quarterly Watch Letter devoted to Major Issues in Mediterranean Agriculture, Food and Rural Areas. Each Issue contains a series of articles on a specific topic, together with information on CIHEAM current activities.

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"For millions of people living in the world’s poorest countries, access to land is a matter not of wealth, but of survival, identity and belonging. Most of the 1.4 billion people earning less than US$1.25 a day live in rural areas and depend largely on agriculture for their livelihoods, while an estimated 2.5 billion people are involved in full- or part-time smallholder agriculture.