March

Committee on Agriculture. FAO's high-level Committee on Agriculture meets in Rome on 25-28 April 2007 to review emerging issues in agriculture and nutrition. On this session's agenda: agriculture and environment, livestock-environment interactions, agribusiness and agroindustry and water scarcity. Get COAG documents...

Alarm over bee losses. Reports that bee colonies in the US are dying off has raised fears that the loss of their "pollination services" could pose a threat to agriculture. FAO says that the decline in honeybee popula-
tions underscores the need to protect wild pollination services. More in Spotlight: Protecting the pollinators...

New search. We have added to our site the Google search engine, which gives (better) results. The search box above searches within AG21 pages. To search the entire AG Department site, containing 50 Gb of data, click here...

Biotechnology and water. What role can biotechnologies play in improving the efficiency of water use in agriculture? Promising approaches - including inoculation of crops with mycorrhizal fungi to enhance plant productivity - will be discussed in an FAO e-mail conference from 5 March to 1 April 2007. Full details...

Animal genetic resources. The latest edition of FAO's Animal genetic resources information bulletin features articles on traditional farming in Vietnam, local cattle breeds in Sudan and Uruguay, and Iberian pigs in Chad. Start here. See also Spotlight: Farm animal biodiversity...

Lumpy skin disease. Our Animal Production and Health Division has published a guide in Arabic to the prevention and control of lumpy skin disease, a growing threat to cattle herds in Africa and the Near East. Download here (PDF, 140K)...

February

Potato web site. FAO has launched the official web site of the United Nations International Year of the Potato, to be celebrated in 2008. Visit the site here, see also Spotlight: Buried treasure: the potato...

Meeting on nutrition. FAO, IFAD and WFP will host in Rome the annual session of the United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition, from 26 February to 1 March 2007. On the agenda: breastfeeding, household food security, micronutrients, emergencies, human rights, HIV/AIDS and child nutrition. Details...

Food safety and quality. Our Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division announces the latest issue of its Food safety and quality update, with news on publications and forthcoming meetings. This way...

Viruses in foods. Responding to increasing concern over the role of viruses in food-borne disease, FAO and WHO are convening an expert meeting in May 2007 to prepare scientific advice for the Codex Alimentarius Commission on the development of risk management guidelines. Details...

Horticultura. Now available: the Spanish edition of FAO's popular guide for extensionists workers dealing with horticulturalists. The guide, Comercialización de productos hortícolas, focuses on helping farmers form mutually beneficial relationships with private-sector traders and processors. Download here (PDF, 1.7MB)...

Foot-and-mouth disease. At its meeting in Rome in January, the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease expressed concern over the spread in the Middle East of the type O PanAsia topotype of the FMD virus. The summary report (PDF, 30K); more on the commission...

Avian influenza. An FAO-sponsored study in Thailand has challenged the view that smallholders' backyard poultry flocks are at greater risk of infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza than commercially raised birds. The study found that the risk is actually "significantly lower". Details (PDF, 74Kb)...

Phytosanitary measures. FAO's Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) holds its second session in Rome on 26-30 March 2007. On the agenda: new guidelines for establishing areas with "low prevalence" of fruit flies. Documents here; for more on the CPM, see Spotlight: Global pest control...

Fertilizer. A new FAO publication brings together 21 country reports to show how correct use of fertilizer can improve agricultural productivity and reduce land degradation. It reviews related issues such as farming systems, profitability, supply, research and extension. See Fertilizer use by crop (1.9 Mb)...

Banana and cassava. Scientists from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cuba and the Czech Republic are collaborating in an FAO/IAEA project aimed at using molecular tools for improving vegetatively propagated crops, including banana and cassava. Details...

January

Major changes. FAO has announced major organizational changes effective 1 January 2007. Our Department will host a Crisis Management Centre, while the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and most of the Land and Water Development Division, move to FAO's new Natural Resources Management and Environment Department.

Crisis management center. The new Crisis Management Centre will streamline FAO's capacity to meet the challenge of transboundary animal disease epidemics, plant pest upsurges and food safety scares. Its long-term objective is to make a major contribution to safeguarding global biosecurity. More (PDF, 740K)...

Water scarcity. FAO's Biotechnology Forum announces an e-mail conference starting in March 2007 on the role of biotechnologies in coping with water scarcity. To join, send an e-mail to mailserv@mailserv.fao.org leaving the subject blank and entering (on two lines):
subscribe BIOTECH-L
subscribe biotech-room2

Rift Valley Fever. An FAO team based in Nairobi and drawn from animal health experts in a number of countries of the Horn of Africa is working with veterinary staff in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia to contain the latest outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in the region. Details...

Plant breeding survey. Our survey of national capacity in plant breeding and associated biotechnology has produced new situation reports (in PDF) for Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Lebanon, Moldova, Nicaragua, Niger, Oman, Slovakia, Thailand and Turkey. See also Spotlight: A global plant breeding initiative...

Animal welfare. Does confinement lead to reduced animal welfare? That is one of the issues examined in an FAO study, now online, which looks at how intensified production affects livestock, and how that relates to ethical beliefs about animal care and use. Download Animal welfare and the intensification of animal production (PDF, 1.6Mb)...