FAO is a key player in the development of global strategies geared towards enhancing global agricultural production systems and practices for a food secure world. The FAO-Region of the Near East (FAO-RNE) has formulated a regional strategy aimed at ensuring greater food security and increasing the wellbeing of the rural poor through evidence-based policies in line with the MDGs. Five core strategic priority areas have been identified, all of which require the availability annual analysis and presentation of statistical data to inform and give guidance to policy and decision-making at international, regional and national levels.<br><br>The data presented in this yearbook are based on important agricultural indicators of the region’s member countries and its sub-regions. The indicators focus on the demographic, economic, agricultural production and agricultural resource sectors of the region and the individual countries. Specifically, the yearbook focuses on: total population, total labor, agricultural population and agricultural labor, national income and the contribution of agriculture to the national income, agricultural trade balance, land size and holdings under permanent crops, production of major crops, food self sufficiency ratio and dietary energy supply among others.<br><br>The yearbook is based on country profile data extracted from the official data of FAOSTAT, the World Bank, the Water Resources of the Near East Region and Food Security data from ESS. The countries covered in this analysis include Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen; and Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.