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While increasingly unpredictable, and seasonal, climate-related disasters continue to cause massive hardships for farmers and their animals in Asia and the Pacific, the world’s most disaster-prone region, volcanic eruptions can cause catastrophe. In particular, during the last two centuries, volcanic eruptions in rural areas of Indonesia and Philippines have resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of human lives, and untold numbers of farm animals. One eruption in the early...

The Governments of Myanmar and Finland today launched a trailblazing project designed to allow for monitoring of forests in a manner that is sensitive to local conflicts and protects human rights. The five-year project will be led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) thanks to a EUR 8 million endowment from the Government of Finland, a consistent partner in the promotion of environmental sustainability. The project is...

Initial and ongoing assessments by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) provide strong indications that the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts are driving up hunger in countries that were already experiencing high levels of food insecurity prior to the disease's outbreak. "The COVID-19 pandemic poses a clear and present danger to food security and nutrition, especially to the world's most vulnerable communities" FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said today at...

While the global pandemic brought on by the spread of COVID-19 has heightened awareness about the need for personal hygiene, such as frequent hand washing, to avoid transmitting the virus, it has also reminded everyone that similar good hygiene practices are always needed in the preparation and handling of food, a joint webinar on food safety heard today. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has urged countries...

While the world fights to slow the spread of COVID-19, the worst pandemic experienced in a century, countries in South Asia are simultaneously responding to plagues of locusts, cyclones and a deadly livestock disease, all of which threaten to worsen hunger and the livelihoods of millions of people, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned today. Swarms of Desert Locust, which originated in Africa, have moved swiftly...

In addition to the recent outbreak of COVID-19, with its devastating impact on the agriculture and agrifood sectors, African Swine Fever (ASF) continues to spread and threaten the livelihoods, food security and nutritional status of vulnerable groups in Asia and the Pacific region. In response to this continuing ASF threat, the Emergency Centre of Animal Disease (ECTAD) at FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) is launching its first...

As COVID-19 continues to threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in Southeast Asia, additional concerns are being raised about the longer term health of the sub-region’s food systems – a complex matrix involving farmers, fishers, labourers, drivers, cold storage, food processors, retailers, and consumers. From small village markets to the large grocery store chains in densely populated cities like Bangkok, Manila, and Jakarta, food appears plentiful enough and...