Land degradation and soil erosion have emerged as serious challenges to smallholder farmers throughout southern Africa. To combat these challenges, conservation agriculture (CA) is widely promoted as a sustainable package of agricultural practices. Despite the many potential benefits of CA, however, adoption remains low.

2015年对国际社会而言是具有分水岭意义的一年。联合国千年发 展目标于2015年到期；自1990年以来，世界各国在实现千年发 展目标方面取得了重大的进展，极端贫困人口、儿童死亡率以及饥 饿人口比例均降低了约一半。然而，我们仍然面临着巨大的挑战。 《2016全球粮食政策报告》综述了影响2015年及未来的食物安全和 营养的主要趋势、事件和变化，并探讨了全球食物系统如何在为进 一步减少饥饿、营养不良和贫困做出最优贡献的同时，确保全球资 源的可持续利用。2016年是我们将新的国际和国家承诺转化为行动 的重要的一年。

This paper illustrates how the capabilities of GIS and satellite imagery can be harnessed to explore and better understand the urban form of several large African cities (Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, and Dakar).

This participatory video titled “We Can” was filmed, produced, and directed by a group of 11 farmers and community members from Damolgo and Sekoti, Ghana.

كان عام 2015 لحظة فارقة لمجتمع التنمية الدولية. فلقد ابرزت نهاية الاهداف
الانمائية للألفية التقدم الملحوظ والمحقق لتلك الاهداف منذ عام 1990 ، حيث
انخفضت معدلات الجوع والفقر المدقع ووفيات الأطفال إلى النصف، ومع ذلك تظل هناك
تحديات جسيمة. يستعرض تقرير السياسة الغذائية العالمية لعام 2016 الاتجاهات والاحداث

This participatory video was filmed, produced, and directed by members of the Rafiki Farmers Group in North Alego, Kenya. With this video they want to communicate the message: knowledge and training on farming practices and markets can help them address some of the challenges they face.

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.

Contract farming (CF) is attractive as a possible private-sector-led strategy for improving smallholder farmers’ welfare. Yet many CF schemes suffer from high turnover of participating farmers and struggle to survive. So far, the dynamics of CF participation have remained largely unexplored.