This 2012 Global Food Policy Report is the second in an annual series that provides an in-depth look at major food policy developments and events. Initiated in response to resurgent interest in food security, the series offers a yearly overview of the food policy developments that have contributed to or hindered progress in food and nutrition security. It reviews what happened in food policy and why, examines key challenges and opportunities, shares new evidence and knowledge, and highlights emerging issues.

Land rights have become highly contested in Vietnam in recent years. Vietnam‟s land endowment is one of the lowest in the world: each agricultural household holds, on average, less than 0.5 hectare. Access to land is critical to social and economic development in the future. The national priority on “industrialization and modernization” has placed new demands on agricultural and forest land for urban-industrial expansion. The high level of public concern over land tenure and its links to political and social stability have led to widespread calls for revision of the 2003 Land Law.

In the context of transition to a more open form of government, the Myanmar government has begun to liberalize land markets and, in 2012, enacted two major land-related laws. Implementing these new land laws has proven challenging, however, as it has been difficult to integrate these laws with the existing customary practices of various ethnic minorities. To address these and other issues UN-HABITAT Myanmar is assisting the Myanmar government in developing a Land Administration and Management Program (LAMP).

A presentation on the effects of the 3-S hydropower development on water access, available land resources and impacts on food production. Presenters describe the 3-S river hydropower dam and its impacts, the importance of affected fisheries to Cambodia, and provide an overview of their research on the Tonle Sap. Presented at the Water‐Food Security in Cambodia conference, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, December 2‐3, 2013.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The overall QSEM program aims to provide a descriptive picture of rural life in Myanmar. It examines different livelihood strategies and activities, the wider factors that shape these strategies, and how the broader social and institutional features of community life affect people’s livelihoods choices and outcomes. Specifically, it explores how external assistance affects individual behavior, coping mechanisms, and community social structures. How do those social structures shape the local economic environment?

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: This report provides a strategic assessment of the key issues, opportunities, constraints and choices facing Myanmar’s agricultural sector. Discussion focuses on pathways that will permit agriculture to contribute meaningfully to broad-based improvements in purchasing power and food security for the country’s many landless and vulnerable households. In doing so, it aims to assist public and private stakeholders who will be making the key investment and policy decisions governing future agricultural and food security trajectories in Myanmar.

The adoption of crop-livestock integration (CLI) among smallholder farmers in the developing countries is no doubt one of the solutions to food security, risk management, and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. However, adequate assessment on the current status of CLI becomes necessary for the development and its evolution among smallholder farmers. This article presents a basic and multi-objective linear programming (LP) model to determine enterprise combinations of crop and livestock activities that maximize total gross margin (TGM) among small farms in the Eastern Cape Province.

Civil conflicts and the December 2004 tsunami have impeded the development of local fruit germplasm despite the inherent high quality and potential of Aceh’s fruit germplasm. Most of Aceh communities are composed of small scale farmers with land ownership averaging from 0.25 to 4 ha per capita; they plant various trees species (fruits, rubber, cocoa, etc.) in a mixed-tree based system (agroforestry) with extensive management. In Aceh' village markets most fruit is produced by local farmers.

Safe and sustainable management of waste presents a major challenge in cities in the Global South. For decades farmers in the peri-urban interface (PUI) have used biodegradable components of urban waste as inputs into their farming practices. Evidence from Kano, Nigeria; Kumasi, Ghana; Hubli-Dharwad and Kolkata, India reveals in rare detail how urban waste reuse plays an important role in the livelihood strategies of lower-income families nd while waste farming also contributes significantly to urban food security.

Land tenure and agricultural reforms are essential components of postwar development. The importance of land use and management systems to livelihood stability and economic growth is especially relevant in Rwanda, where eighty per cent of the population depends on subsistence agriculture in a rural system plagued by conflict over holdings and decreasing production.

Urban agriculture is potentially an important element of land reform and economic development programmes in South Africa. The social value of urban agriculture, such as improving food security, developing a sense of community and promoting ecological conservation, is well documented. But in order to effectively contribute to development agendas, urban agriculture must also present viable, sustainable economic opportunities. This study sets forth vegetable box schemes as a context-appropriate, economically feasible urban agriculture enterprise for which there is growing consumer demand.