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More favourable growing conditions and improved supply prospects for maize have eased fears of sharp global price hikes, FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific announced today. In early May, a decline in maize and wheat accounted for global price increases of more than 15 percent since the beginning of 2014. However, the FAO’s Food Price Index and Cereal Supply and Demand Brief, both released today, indicate higher than expected...

Hundreds of millions of people around the world rely on grasslands to feed the livestock which are the foundation of their livelihoods. Yet poor land management has left large swathes of the world's grasslands degraded - an environmental problem which also has direct implications for livestock-dependent communities. To help address these concerns, FAO and the Chinese Academy of Agriculture Science (CAAS), the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and China's Northwest Institute of...

As Asia’s population grows and becomes more affluent and urban based, improvements to food security and food safety will require decisive and coordinated action, a senior FAO official said today. “Improving food safety and food security are important but complex, multi-dimensional issues,” said Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. “Without assurances of effective, internationally accepted standards and codes of practice in place in this...

Soaring demand for milk and dairy products will be driven by an insatiable Asian thirst and appetite for decades to come, delegates at an FAO-sponsored regional meeting on dairy production heard today. While that is a positive trend, there are challenges to ensure demand is met in a sustainable way and that smallholder producers also profit from increased production, the FAO said today. Public and private sector experts from the world’s livestock...

The success of sustainable long-term development in Asia and the Pacific will depend on the region’s ability to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, a senior FAO Official today told a UN forum on regional sustainable development to 2015 and beyond. “FAO’s vision for Rio+20 and beyond is to end hunger and make the transition to a sustainable agriculture and food system,” said Sumiter Broca on behalf of Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General...

A new multi-stakeholder network has vowed to collaborate in the fight against post-harvest food losses and food waste in Thailand, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today. The formation of Save Food Network Thailand (SFNET) was inspired by the regional Save Food Asia-Pacific Campaign, in which Thailand is among some ten countries across the region participating.   The problem of food loss and food waste cannot be overstated. Worldwide, 30...

In its first major forecast for 2014, cereal production is estimated at 2,458 million tonnes (including milled rice), down by 60 million metric tonnes, or some 2.4 percent, from the 2013 record, the FAO’s biannual Food Outlook reports today. This plunge has been attributed to a 1.9 percent decline in wheat production and a drop of 3.9 percent in coarse grains. “What we are seeing is a tightening of the supply/demand balance,...

Tens of thousands of farmers are bringing in their first rice harvest just six months after one of the worst typhoons to ever hit the Philippines left their fields in tatters and their livelihoods at risk, FAO announced today. After Typhoon Haiyan hit the central Philippines on 8 November, 2013, the situation was dire. More than 6,000 people lost their lives, while some 600,000 hectares of farmland were destroyed, leaving millions...

Six traditional farming systems in China, Iran and South Korea known for their unique characteristics and approaches to sustainability have been designated Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) by FAO. They include Iran’s Qanat Irrigation system, an ancient network of farms that have survived for nearly three millennia; a 22-thousand-kilometer system of black stone walls built from volcanic rock in Jeju, South Korea; and the traditional Gudeuljang Irrigated rice terraces...

China and Mongolia are moving forward to implement activities following an agreement reached last month on South-South cooperation, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization announced today. The two countries and the FAO signed the Memorandum of Understanding in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on 14 March. The South-South Cooperation (SSC) Tripartite Agreement between Mongolia, the People’s Republic of China and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was signed during the...