Guided by the Global Action Plan of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028, this publication looks into ways that legislation can best support policy processes aimed at advancing family farming’s contribution to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. The publication aims to present some of the laws and regulations relevant to family farming to determine the features that can most positively benefit family farmers while providing information and experiences from different parts of the globe for decision-makers and practitioners. The objective not being to provide prescriptions for how to regulate family farming, but rather to present different options to decision-makers, thereby facilitating their appreciation of the complexity of existing legislative and regulatory frameworks that underpin family farming and empowering them for the design of supportive approaches best suited to their respective national context. With the multisectorality of family farming at its core and mindful of family farmers’ overwhelming contribution to nutritiously and sustainably feed the world, this publication analyses legislative processes in 12 different areas that are conducive to the agri-food systems transformation for a better production, better environment, better nutrition and better life for all, leaving no one behind.

FAO’s previous contribution to the development of contract farming saw the publication in 2015 of the UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide on Contract Farming, which focused on the bilateral relationship between an agricultural producer and a contractor. This Legislative Study develops that research and focuses on the regulatory frameworks for contract farming, aiming to highlight different possible approaches for different contexts. Responsible contract farming can be a powerful tool for small scale farmers in developing countries to move towards larger scalecommercial production. It can create economic wealth, contribute to supply chain efficiency through the production of higher quantities of better quality products, and contribute to achieving domestic food security objectives. Maximizing these benefits while minimizing the inherent risks of contract farming is reliant upon the forging of an enabling environment, a key part of which is the domestic regulatory framework. This Legislative Study provides guidance to domestic regulators and other interested readers on how to appraise and potentially reform domestic regulatory frameworks to achieve responsible contract farming. Recognising that different countries and contextual realties may benefit from different regulatory solutions, this Study provides several examples, supported by representative case studies, on how contract farming can be regulated, without promoting a single solution as the most appropriate. Please visit FAO’s Contract Farming Resource Centre, http://www.fao.org/in-action/contract-farming/en/, which is a regularly updated website hosting a variety of material on contract farming both from FAO and from other recognized authors.

This publication primarily aims to support decision-makers and practitioners in developing legislative measures to enhance the livelihoods of family farmers through a dedicated attention being placed on the importance of defining family farming and some of its most common features with cases discussed from different parts of the globe. While each context provides for a tailored definition of family farming with some of the definitions being broader and others narrower in their inclusion and enumeration, recurring elements made their way through multiple definitions and hint to certain commonalities across regions and languages. Against this setting, this publication primarily analyses cases of legislative measures for family farming through clear and tailored definitions while presenting examples, commonalities and differences on legislative practices in different parts of the globe and on a variety of intrinsic matters for family farmers’ livelihoods. After setting the legal background on which legislative interventions for family farming are mostly based, the publication delves into specific features of definitions through various examples before examining the closely linked nature of legislative and policy processes, which are presented through assorted examples of multisectoral legislative measures undertaken to enhance family farmers’ livelihoods.

The agriculture, forestry, and fishing sectors are the cornerstone of industries that produce food, fiber, and biofuel. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducts research in order to improve worker safety and health in these sectors. This National Research Council book reviews the NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program to evaluate the 1) relevance of its work to improvements in occupational safety and health and 2) the impact of research in reducing workplace illnesses and injuries. The assessment reveals that the program has made meaningful contributions to improving worker safety and health in these fields. To enhance the relevance and impact of its work and fulfill its mission, the NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program should provide national leadership, coordination of research, and activities to transfer findings, technologies, and information into practice. The program will also benefit from establishing strategic goals and implementing a comprehensive surveillance system in order to better identify and track worker populations at risk.

Despite an increasing recognition of the importance of a conducive and aligned public procurement policy and regulatory frameworks for the implementation of public food procurement initiatives that target smallholder farmers, very little has been said about how such an alignment can be achieved, or about the various tools and legal mechanisms that can be used to do this. This publication aims to contribute to this discussion, bringing an analysis of four country experiences and of the various legal mechanisms that can be used to align the regulatory framework in pursuit of broader development goals by means of public procurement in the form of home-grown school feeding programmes.

Public policies for family farming – when done appropriately – provide a perfect match between different policy areas related to productive, economic, social, environmental and cultural dimensions of sustainable food systems. The Learning framework for inclusive, integrated and innovative public policy cycles for family farming was developed under the framework of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming (2019–2028) to support policymakers, family farmers’ organizations and other relevant stakeholders to increase their understanding of public policy cycles and family farming related policies. This technical and methodological capacity development programme is adaptable to local, national or regional priorities. It offers a holistic perspective to building knowledge and capacity of the various actors involved in the design, implementation and review of effective and coherent policies and programmes. This learning framework responds to the needs of multiple actors, expressed during the UNDFF pre-consultation process, to identify ways to create truly effective and efficient policy frameworks for family farming, and to better engage and participate during policy processes. To provide an appropriate answer to these needs the learning framework was designed through a participatory process building on the experience of governments and family farmers’ organizations, researchers and UN staff, gathering inputs from all relevant actors around the world.

This catalogue aims to improve the dissemination and outreach of FAO’s knowledge products and overall publishing programme. By providing information on its key publications in every area of FAO’s work, and catering to a range of audiences, it thereby contributes to all organizational outcomes. From statistical analysis to specialized manuals to children’s books, FAO publications cater to a diverse range of audiences. This catalogue presents a selection of FAO’s main publications, produced in 2021 or earlier, ranging from its global reports and general interest publications to numerous specialized titles. In addition to the major themes of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, it also includes thematic sections on climate change, economic and social development, and food safety and nutrition