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Two emergency regional projects* aimed at containing avian influenza were launched today by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific at a three-day workshop. The meeting was attended by veterinary experts from countries in the sub-regions of Southeast and South Asia and from a number of international organizations and development partners. Working in coordination with development partners such as the United States Agency for...

FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Hiroyuki Konuma, spoke today at the opening session of the 1st Service Research and Innovation Institute (SRII) Asia Summit, which brings experts together to share service innovations. Konuma said, “FAO estimates that 91 percent of  the global food production increase towards the year 2050 should come from yield increases on existing arable land based on the advancement of agricultural...

Twenty-two member countries*  of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from the Asia and Pacific Region, will gather from 12 to 14 September 2013 to collectively work on bringing about safer food for the region. The inaugural FAO-NEA Regional Workshop for Asian Countries on Hygiene and Safety in Food Retail is the first such forum in this region that offers participants a comprehensive view of hygiene and...

Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific announced at his monthly media briefing that the Organization’s Cereal Supply and Demand Brief , issued today from the Organization’s Rome Headquarters, has raised its “forecast of world cereal production to 2 492 million tonnes, up 14 million tonnes (or 0.5 percent) from the July forecast. Most of the upward adjustment reflects expectations of higher maize production...

FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in collaboration with the Asian Institute of Technology and other partners launched the Save Food Asia-Pacific campaign yesterday, which aims to reduce post-harvest food losses and market-to-consumer food waste. The regional initiative will raise awareness about the high levels of food losses – particularly post-harvest losses - and the growing problem of food waste in the region. The launch came at the end...

Denouncing the huge amount of food that goes to waste, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Hiroyuki Konuma, today announced a new initiative aimed at stopping post-harvest food losses and market-to-consumer food waste. “The Save Food Asia-Pacific Campaign seeks to raise awareness about the high levels of food losses – particularly post-harvest losses - and the growing problem of food waste in the region,” Konuma...

FAO announced today that last night it signed a five-year agreement to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and forestry with goal of reducing hunger and malnutrition in the region and improving food and nutrition security with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the two Organizations will “strengthen the collaboration between FAO and ASEAN Member States in the fields of agriculture and forestry through consultation,...

A three-day high-level technical workshop opened today to raise awareness of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. The FAO workshop brings together more than 80 representatives from some 20 Asian countries in an effort to help develop ideas that can be used to support improved governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests in the...

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 205.9 points in July 2013, 4 points (nearly 2 percent) below its revised value for June and 7 points, or 3.3 percent, lower than in July 2012. The decline in July marked the third consecutive monthly drop. The index was released today by the Organization's Rome Headquarters. “The decline was driven by lower international prices for grains, soy and palm oil, while sugar, meat and...

Early and abundant monsoon rains have boosted prospects for main crops in Asia, which may produce 677.9, or 452.0 million tonnes of rice, milled basis, up 1.5 percent from a revised 2012 outcome,” says the FAO Rice Market (RMM) Monitor issued today on the Organizations website. If weather conditions hold, India together with mainland China “are forecast to lead the region’s growth, but virtually all countries in the region are...