FAO Report Released: Enabling Environments for Agribusiness and Agro-industries Development

Recently the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a United Nations organization that focues on "rais[ing] levels of nutrition, improv[ing] agricultural productivity, better[ing] the lives of rural populations and contribut[ing] to the growth of the world economy" released a report titled, Enabling Environments for Agribusiness and Agro-industries Development (2013).  The 71-page report available here,  discusses the following:

[t]he existence of a conducive business climate, or enabling environment, is considered essential to engender economic growth and development. However, what “an enabling environment” should encompass in practical terms remains elusive to many scholars and policy makers, particularly when discussed at the sub-sector level. This publication by FAO’s Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division (AGS) examines issues associated with enabling environments with a focus on agribusiness and agro-industrial sectors, which have not had their peculiar characteristics sufficiently examined in traditional appraisals of business climates. Based on a series of workshops and consultations organized by AGS in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, the report reviews existing frameworks for general enabling environment assessments and discusses their relevance to agribusiness and agro-industries. It also discusses the challenges of enabling environment reforms and identifies a number of essential, important and useful enablers that are particularly relevant to agrifood business climate appraisals and upgrading.