FAO.org

FAO's April 2011 issue of the Rice Market Monitor is lowering by 2 million tonnes the estimated world paddy production in 2010 mainly on account of a worsened outlook in India. At the new forecasted level of 699 million tonnes (466 million tonnes, in milled rice basis), global rice output would be 2.4 percent larger than in 2009 and a new record, a positive outcome given the many setbacks endured...

Agricultural ministers meeting in Tonga Volatile food prices and market uncertainties are urgent topics high on the minds of agriculture ministers and senior officials from sixteen invited Pacific countries when they will be meeting in Tonga next week. While there is no indication of an impending world food crisis, FAO is warning that food price hikes are a major threat to food security for the poor. Central to the Tonga meeting is how...

A large-scale distribution by FAO of wheat seeds to the victims of last year’s floods in Pakistan is now ripe to yield enough food for half a million poor rural households. With an average family size of eight, this translates into a harvest large enough to feed four million people for the next six months. FAO spent $54 million of international donor funding buying and distributing quality wheat seeds as part of...

Capacity of national veterinary services to manage animal disease must also be strengthened Around a million dollars of equipment and vaccines are urgently required to help stem outbreaks of deadly Foot-and-Mouth disease (FMD) in North Korea, followed by a more prolonged and concerted effort to modernize veterinary services in the country. A joint FAO and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) mission travelled to North Korea at the government's request between...

Thousands of families in central and southern Laos require both immediate and medium term assistance, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said today. These food-insecure people were affected by the late 2009 typhoon Ketsana, the 2010 drought lasting throughout June and subsequent localized flash floods in Lao PDR.According to a joint Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) by the two UN agencies, the...

In response to the current rise in food prices, FAO will, in partnership with stakeholders, run a series of seminars in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Near East to help governments to make informed decisions on how to respond to high food prices, the Organization announced today. Global food prices increased for the eighth consecutive month in February, with prices of all commodity groups...

Rising food prices in Asia Global food prices increased for the eighth consecutive month in February, with prices of all commodity groups rising again, except for sugar. FAO expects a tightening of the global cereal supply and demand balance in 2010/11. In the face of a growing demand and a decline in world cereal production in 2010, global cereal stocks this year are expected to fall sharply. With 2/3 of the world’s...

A team of animal health specialists from FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has arrived in North Korea to assist veterinary authorities there in responding to outbreaks of Foot-and-Mouth disease among pigs and cattle.The group consists of a veterinarian specializing in Food-and-Mouth (FMD) and transboundary animal diseases, a logistics officer and a laboratory technician fielded by FAO, and a veterinarian specialist in disease management from OIE. DPRK...

Lea Salonga’s career has taken a new and very different course. The Broadway star now sings a different tune as Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, supporting the eradication of world hunger and poverty. Today Lea Salonga visited a department of agriculture project implemented by FAO with funding provided from the European Union's Food Facility in La Paz, Tarlac. The FAO Goodwill Ambassador took part in the demonstration of...

Part of a 10 year investment plan for the Asian region costed at $250 million, two regional projects were launched today at the Thai ministry of agriculture and cooperatives to foster smallholder dairy development and school milk programmes in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. FAO in cooperation with the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), the governments of Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand, and other partners launched two projects that aim to foster dairy...