News archive 2011

The role of forests in providing timber and other wood products must not overshadow their important contribution to feeding many of the world's poorest communities, a group of international forest organizations and secretariats said today. The potential of forests to improve food and nutritional security needs more attention from national policymakers and international development agencies.

At a ceremony held at FAO headquarters today, the U.S. Peace Corps pledged to support and expand its food security-related activities to combat hunger in countries where it is active. The move builds on the long history of partnership between the Corps, FAO and the World Food Programme on development work in rural communities around the world.

United Nations Agency chiefs and top international personalities met today to celebrate World Food Day, whose focus this year is on the recent wave of food price swings which threatens to push millions more people into hunger.

FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Program celebrate World Food Day 2011 today with a series of speeches by visiting guests and performances by celebrity goodwill ambassadors. "Food Prices - From Crisis to Stability" is the theme of the Day this year.

With the October rainy season starting, FAO is helping more than 5 000 vulnerable farming households in eastern Kenya terrace their fields to conserve rain water for crop use and prevent the soils from being washed away. They are also building simple dams for better harvesting of rain water.

Food price volatility featuring high prices is likely to continue and possibly increase, making poor farmers, consumers and countries more vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity, the United Nations' three Rome-based agencies said in the global hunger report published today.

Despite improved production prospects, world cereal markets are likely to remain fairly tight in 2011-2012. FAO's quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report forecasts world cereal production will total 2 310 million tonnes this marketing season, 3 percent or 68 million tonnes higher than in 2010-2011.

Urgent action is needed to prevent a looming humanitarian and food crisis in two strife-affected regions on the border between Sudan and the newly-independent nation of South Sudan. Food availability in Blue Nile and South Kordofan is forecast to be significantly reduced

Focused policies and investments aimed at protecting and managing forest and trees in and around cities are needed to strengthen urban livelihoods and improve city environments, as the world becomes increasingly urbanized, said the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), of which FAO is a member, on the occasion of World Habitat Day celebrated today.

The vast potential of grasslands to trap atmospheric carbon and help slow down global warming is one step closer to being realized thanks to a new methodology developed by FAO and partner organizations in China. The methodology gives herders investing in restoring grasslands a way to prove they are sequestering atmospheric carbon while doing so, and gain access to climate change mitigation financing.