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Vientiane - Over $US40 000 worth of information technology and motorbikes were officially donated today to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) from Japan and Germany, by projects managed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).The Department of Livestock and Fisheries received 20 motorbikes from the German Government and 11 computers, including laptops, as well as a photocopier and five projectors from the Japanese Government to bolster the...

Manila, (FAO/OIE/WHO) — At the invitation of the Government of the Philippines, experts from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have arrived in Manila to participate in a joint mission to further investigate the Ebola Reston virus identified last October in pigs from two farms in the Philippines.The fact that this is the first time that...

Yangon – The availability of vegetables in Myanmar is less than 50 percent the recommended daily dietary intake of vegetables (300 g/day). An FAO assisted project provides the platform to highlight this key issue and initiating remedial action at national level.With US$2.9 million funding provided by the European Commission, an FAO project in Myanmar plans to support most needy people in the Northern Rakhine State through food, nutrient and livelihood...

Vientiane - Lee Yay Sayaxang, a 27 year old student in his final year at the Faculty of Agriculture at the National University of Laos, beat over 260 other entrants to win the FAO Nutrition Quiz, receiving a 150 000 Kip prize.Inspired by the signing of the new National Nutrition Policy, the Nutrition Quiz was a popular feature of the FAO stand at the recent Agricultural and Forestry Fair, held...

Bangkok (FAO) - Delivery of agricultural inputs to vulnerable farm households under FAO’s Initiative on Soaring Food Prices (ISFP) has recently begun in Bhutan, the Philippines and the Pacific Island Countries; has almost been completed in Afghanistan and is nearing completion in Cambodia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. More than half of allocated ISFP assistance was provided to farmers to Mongolia, Pakistan and Timor-Leste.A donors’ agricultural task force,...

Despite the unprecedented high global cereal harvest in 2008 which is projected to boost world wheat and rice stocks by up to 10 percent in 2009, Asia and the Pacific region faces mixed prospects with average cereal outputs almost stagnant.RiceAsia’s 2008 rice output is estimated to increase by 2 percent to 612 million tonnes, mainly due to higher harvests in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Viet Nam which intensified cultivation...

Bangkok (FAO) - Rising incomes, urbanization and changing lifestyles have led to a major shift in food preferences in Asia and the Pacific region. Traditionally carbohydrate-heavy Asian diets are becoming richer in fat and protein with rice consumption declining in Southeast and East Asia since 1995.Over the past 20 years, meat consumption in the region has more than doubled while milk consumption grew 50 percent in India, potato consumption ten-fold...

Despite more than 10 years of robust economic growth in Lao PDR, the situation remains unchanged for the 40 percent of children under five years that continue to be affected by chronic malnutrition, denying them the right to reach their full mental and physical potential. Many also suffer from high levels of micronutrient deficiencies.In rural areas, every second child is stunted - too short for their age or chronically malnourished....

Apia, Samoa (FAO) - A new study by FAO, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme and the University of the South Pacific highlights the urgent need for agricultural and environmental institutions and stakeholders in the Pacific Island Countries to team upto address the serious threat to regional food security from climate change-linked natural disasters.Assessments in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuata find the threat to be especially...

Manila (FAO/OIE/WHO) – Following the detection of the Ebola Reston virus in pigs in the Philippines, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that the government of the Philippines has requested the three agencies send an expert mission to work with human and animal health experts in the Philippines to further investigate the situation.An increase...