Agricultural Value Chain Development: Threat or Opportunity for Women's Employment?

This document presents information on how agricultural markets are rapidly globalizing, generating new consumption patterns and new production and distribution systems. Value chains, often controlled by multinational or national firms and supermarkets, are capturing a growing share of the agri-food systems in developing regions. They can provide opportunities for quality employment for men and women, yet they can also be channels to transfer costs and risks to the weakest nodes, particularly women. They often perpetuate gender stereotypes that keep women in lower paid, casual work and do not necessarily lead to greater gender equality

3. The Historical, Environmental and Socio-economic Context of Forests and Tree-based Systems for Food Security and Nutrition

3.1 Introduction Forests and trees outside of forests have ensured the food security and nutrition of human populations since time immemorial. Throughout the world, forests and associated ecosystems have been managed to enhance their production of a vast array of wild, semi-domesticated and domesticated foods, including fruits, nuts, tubers, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, honey, insects, game animals, fish and other wildlife (discussed in detail in Chapter 2). The development and spread of crop..

Forests and Food

As population estimates for 2050 reach over 9 billion, issues of food security and nutrition have been dominating academic and policy debates. A total of 805 million people are undernourished worldwide and malnutrition affects nearly every country on the planet. Despite impressive productivity increases, there is growing evidence that conventional agricultural strategies fall short of eliminating global hunger, as well as having long-term ecological consequences. Forests can play an important role in complementing agricultural production to address the Sustainable Development Goals on zero hunger. Forests and trees can be managed to provide better and more nutritionally-balanced diets, greater control over food inputs–particularly during lean seasons and periods of vulnerability (especially for marginalised groups)–and deliver ecosystem services for crop production. However forests are undergoing a rapid process of degradation, a complex process that governments are struggling to reverse. Forests have huge potential to reduce global hunger and malnutrition. Forests and Food provides the evidence and insights necessary for harnessing that power. This timely volume is essential reading for researchers, students, NGOs and governments around the globe