News archive 2013

National leadership and action are crucial and governments have the primary responsibility for assuring the food security of their citizens, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today told a high-level meeting on the UN’s vision for a post-2015 strategy against world hunger.

Long-lasting insecticide-treated nets – basically the same ones used to protect humans – are boosting livestock health and the lives of people depending on those animals, from dairy farms run mostly by women in Kenya to smallholder pig farms in Ghana. The knock-on benefit? With fewer insects around, people too are a lot less sick.

Madagascar needs more than $22 million of emergency funding by June to start fighting a severe locust plague that threatens the country's next cropping seasons and the food security of more than half the country's population, FAO said today. The agency underlined, however, that a three-year strategy is needed - requiring an additional $19 million.

Small-scale producers, local production and consumption circuits and recovering traditional crops have a major part to play in reducing hunger, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva told professors and students at the University of Gastronomic Sciences today, also noting the many possibilities of cooperation between FAO and the university.

Creating sustainable and secure food systems will be high on the agenda for Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy, said Eduardo Rojas-Briales, FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry, who has been named Commissioner-General for the United Nations’ preparations for the event. The theme of Expo 2015 will be ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life'.

On the first International Day of Forests, celebrated by the United Nations today, FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva proposed that countries support a Zero Illegal Deforestation target in the context of the post-2015 debate.

FAO will support Mexico’s efforts to ensure that no one is left out in the fight against hunger, José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General assured the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto during an encounter today in Rome.

FAO Director-General Jose’ Graziano da Silva attended the inaugural Mass for Pope Francis at the Vatican on Tuesday, saying the United Nations would look to Pope Francis as a “friend of the poor” to support the fight against hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty. Graziano da Silva was at the ceremony on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Former presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and John Kufuor of Ghana have called for strong political will to bring an end to hunger in Africa, while participating in a high-level forum organized by the FAO’s Regional Office for Africa based in Accra.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva reviewed hunger and poverty-fighting strategies, including the "social technologies" pioneered by Brazil, at a meeting at FAO headquarters. Stating that "it is fundamental to end hunger", President Rousseff noted that three aspects of the Brazilian anti-hunger programme are essential.