Brief summary of FAO’s experience in agrarian reform and the most relevant activities of the current programme related to this field. It argues that the type of agrarian reform that considers the redistribution of land from the rich to the poor either through confiscation or through pre-emptive buyouts belongs to the past. However, this does not mean that Member Nations have stopped seeking ways to improve access to productive resources (land, water, etc.) as a cornerstone to their rural development policy.

Although world food and agricultural production, based on current trends, should be sufficient to meet demand in the decades ahead, the world still faces a serious food crisis that is as dangerous and life-threatening for millions of poor people today as in the past. The main objective of this article is to illuminate the world food situation and to make a critical analysis of the root causes of world food insecurity by identifying the various misconceptions surrounding our understanding of hunger, starvation and poverty.

Considers the cultural dimension of applying the land information system (LIS) concept to lands held under customary land tenure. The article recognizes that the LIS concept has been developed primarily to serve the needs of countries with a western-style land market where individual land rights are the norm. However, many countries where customary landholdings exist, or predominate, are also interested in establishing LISs to manage their land resources better. The article has three main sections.