The spread of ill information with or without the intention of deceiving or causing harm has negatively impacted agricultural development both in social and digital spaces. This has led to a lack of trust in adopting new technologies and practices, which has hindered the process of facilitating agricultural development. Although the study of agri-food misinformation is still in its early stages, this paper draws on a scoping review of existing literature and lessons learned from other fields, such as political science and public health, which have extensive experience in combating misinformation in social settings. The article explores how Farmer Field Schools (FFS), a popular participatory and community-based approach, can incorporate media literacy education and how a local agricultural information hub, platform approach and a relatively new approach called technology stewardship in agricultural extension can help those working in the agri-food industry combat misinformation.

This paper investigates the effects of ICT-based Agriculture Extension Service (IAES) use on farmers’ diversification decision using a cross-sectional survey over 928 litchi growers in southern China. To solve the endogeneity problem, a recursive bivariate probit (RBP) model is employed. The RBP model result indicates that IAES use increases the probability of farm diversification by 24.7%. Moreover, the findings suggest that IAES use has a positive impact on litchi growers’ decision on livestock integration, but has no impact on intercropping. In the light of the findings of this study, government should promote the use of IAES to advance sustainable intensification of agriculture and secure rural livelihoods.

“WE DON’T GET rain on time anymore,” said Purna Rana, a 51-year-old farmer in Sathikola village in mid-western Nepal. It was the middle of November 2023 and the winter chill was beginning to set in. “The summers are hotter and winters are colder each year,” he continued. “Last winter, I lost my tomatoes to a combination of mosaic virus, white flies and extreme cold.” Rana has been fighting all these threats even as extreme weather conditions exacerbate farming risks every year. Rana was not always a farmer. He went to India to find work in 1991, when he was just 19. He trained as a radio repairman and electrician and shuttled for work between Shimla, Mumbai, Delhi and numerous small towns between these cities. After 21 years as a migrant, he returned to Nepal in 2012. He first planned to use his experience as a radio repairman to provide for his family, which included two school-going children. He made the hopeful but ill-considered move of opening a radio repair shop in his village. “How many radios do you think this village had?” he asked. Even the handful it had were soon made redundant by cheap mobile phones that doubled as radios.

The FAO Strategic Priorities for Food Safety 2022–2031 encourage a more consistent integration of food safety into the development of sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems, food security and nutrition policies, and agriculture development strategies. FAO expects the Strategic Priorities for Food Safety to act as an instrument that will spur investments to strengthen food safety, to enhance effective participation in food safety standards-setting and to secure adequate human and financial resources for FAO to successfully implement its food safety programme and to provide international guidance, policy and advocacy for policymakers.