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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today formalized its partnership with one of Asia’s leading civil society organizations working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote transformative, sustainable agriculture. The CSO, Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia (AsiaDHRRA), is a regional leader in building partnerships to empower farmers. It has been active...

Innovation, solidarity, coherence and strong partnership among and within countries of Asia and the Pacific are required for the region to rebound from the damage caused by COVID-19 and the ongoing effects of chronic undernourishment. That was a call made by more than 40 member countries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concluding a four-day regional conference. About 750 participants, including representatives of the private sector and...

On the third day of the FAO Regional Conference for Asia-Pacific, the FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, Government Ministers as well as civil society and private sector representatives voiced concern over COVID-19's impacts on the food security and livelihoods of millions of people, and urged for greater action to overcome the food and agriculture challenges facing the region. They spoke during the Ministerial Session of the virtual conference, which is hosted by Bhutan...

The FAO Regional Conference for Asia-Pacific, which started yesterday virtually hosted by Royal Government of Bhutan, has been an important platform for FAO and the international community to hear and acknowledge the voice of those countries that are usually the most vulnerable to shocks, such as the impacts of COVID-19: Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs).Delegations from Pacific Islands actively participated in...

 As COVID-19 continues to threaten lives and livelihoods across many countries of the Asia-Pacific region, it has led to setbacks in the fight to end hunger and malnutrition. In this context, the 35th Session of the FAO Asia and Pacific Regional Conference (#APRC35), hosted virtually by the Royal Government of Bhutan, started today with representatives from 46 countries examining the present situation of the region's food security, with a particular emphasis on implications...

As COVID-19 continues to threaten lives and livelihoods across many countries of the Asia-Pacific region, it has led to setbacks in the fight to end hunger and malnutrition, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced today. The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than half of the world’s undernourished, and with COVID-19 the number of hungry people in Southern Asia is projected to rise by nearly a...

The arrival of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has had a great impact on agriculture and food systems in Asia and the Pacific, a region already beset by climate and weather related challenges, such as droughts and flooding. Supply chains have been disrupted, demand has dropped for certain foods, resulting in damage to nutrition, health and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people in this, the world’s most populous region.    In response,...

The Samoa Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE), University of South Pacific (USP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) are partnering to develop weather advisories aimed at helping farmers better plan their crop production. A meeting to discuss moving the initiative forward was held recently at the office of the Samoa Meteorology Division in Apia, Samoa Agrometeorology or Agromet is...

Asia-Pacific’s smallholder family farmers produce most of the world’s food, yet they are facing a disproportionate impact on their livelihoods and food security due to the present coronavirus pandemic, a collaboration of FAO and advocacy groups warned today. The COVID-19 impact on the region’s rural communities, and particularly those in developing countries, has resulted in economic slowdown and stagnation.  The pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities and inequalities within and among countries. Food,...

FAO and the Russian Federation have signed a $10 million Contribution Agreement aimed at boosting efforts to control and eliminate Desert Locusts in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda. The agreement was signed today by FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol and Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Rome-based UN Agencies Victor Vasiliev during a virtual ceremony. While thanking the Russian Federation "for the generous and critical contribution to...