News archive 2010

Food commodities markets will remain more volatile in the years ahead and the international community will need to develop appropriate ways of dealing with that, according to FAO Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem. He suggests the G20 could take the lead in devising measures to ensure greater market stability over the medium and long term.

Recycling urban wastewater and using it to grow food crops can help mitigate water scarcity problems and reduce water pollution, but the practice is not being as widely implemented as it should, according to a new FAO report.

King Abdullah Bin Abd-al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia has been awarded FAO's Agricola Medal in recognition of his support for improving world food security as well as for his contribution to agricultural development in Saudi Arabia over the last decade.

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has appointed 15 world-class experts to form the Steering Committee that will lead its new advisory body, the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE). The move is part of an ongoing reform of the international governance of food security and nutrition

September marks the start of the wheat planting season in Pakistan where floods covering land half the size of Italy have wiped out much of the country's household wheat seed stocks. FAO calls for donors to focus attentions on making sure those poor farmers in a position to plant wheat are given the means to do so, or millions will face hunger.

FAO Goodwill Ambassadors Carl Lewis (athlete, USA) and Anggun (singer, Indonesia)have been named by the United Nations as MDG Champions. The announcement was made today at UN headquarters in New York. They will be joining other celebrities in support of the MDG Summit to be held in New York on 22 September 2010.

Higher wheat prices drove international food prices up five percent last month in the biggest monthly increase since November 2009, FAO announced. The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 176 points in August, up nearly nine points from July. That was its highest level since September 2008, but it was still 38 percent down from its peak in June 2008.

The fertile lowlands that cover one-fifth of Liberia are part of a European Union and FAO-supported plan to cut the nation’s dependence on rice imports and improve the livelihood of vulnerable farmer families.

In Liberia, the EU and FAO work with the government and the UN Joint Programme for Food Security and Nutrition, aiming to provide emergency assistance to food-insecure households while also building the long-term capacity of Liberians to improve their livelihoods. The programme is working with both men’s and women’s farmer cooperatives.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has joined a global anti-hunger campaign organized by FAO, signing his name to FAO’s “1billionhungry” international petition to end hunger. Nearly half a million people worldwide have so far signed the petition and the goal is to obtain a million signatures by the end of November when a meeting of FAO's governing Council is scheduled.