The preparation of The State of Food and Agriculture 2020 began with a meeting held at FAO headquarters in Rome on 19 November 2019 and attended by FAO specialists from relevant units to discuss the outline of the report. Following the meeting, an advisory group representing all relevant FAO technical

units and chaired by the Deputy Director of FAO’s Agrifood Economics Division was formed to assist

in the drafting process. First drafts of the chapters were presented to the advisory group and panel

of external experts between 17–21 February 2020. The full draft was then discussed at a workshop

held on 26–27 February. With inputs from that workshop, the report was revised and presented to the

management team of FAO’s Economic and Social Development stream. The revised draft was sent for

comment to other FAO streams and to the FAO regional offices for Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe

and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Near East and North Africa, as well as to

external reviewers. Comments were incorporated in the final draft, which was reviewed by the Assistant

Director-General of the Economic and Social Development stream, and then submitted to the Office of

the FAO Director-General on 3 November 2020. In drafting the report, the research and writing team

drew on background papers prepared by FAO and external experts.