News archive 2015

The African Union Commission, Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the National Geographic Society and the non-profit World Rural Forum have received awards today for their outstanding efforts in support of Zero Hunger, improve nutrition and raise awareness of the challenges facing the world's food systems.

The Netherlands and FAO are expanding their collaboration in the area of water management with a $7 million donation by the Government of the Netherlands to support the use of remote sensing technology in helping water-scarce countries in the Near East and Africa monitor and improve the way they use water for crop production.

Focusing specifically on the impact of climate-related disasters in developing countries, some 25 percent of the negative economic impacts were borne by the crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors alone.

The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, promulgated earlier this year at the 2015 World Expo, offers a unique international platform to make city food systems more equitable and sustainable, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and the Italian city's Mayor, Giuliano Pisapia, have said.

Some thirty years to the day after FAO first launched its International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides, the UN food agency is calling on countries to make sure that national regulatory frameworks governing the management of pesticides are kept up to date.

In the run-up to the Paris Climate Change Summit, FAO has released new Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Integration of Genetic Diversity into National Climate Change Adaptation Planning, designed assist countries in better conserving and sustainably using genetic resources in times of climate change.

The latest version of the tree assessment tool, known as GlobAllomeTree, will allow countries worldwide to get a clearer picture of the biomass, carbon content and ecosystem services of trees and forests.

Ensuring better nutrition for all and transforming the world’s food systems to ensure their future sustainability represent the two greatest challenges facing FAO as it renews its mission to free the world from hunger and malnutrition, the UN agency's Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, said today.

The locust situation in countries normally affected by Desert Locust remained mostly calm in October with only small-scale breeding activity detected, FAO experts said. They noted however, that this could change, in part due to the impact of El Nino in Africa and the tropical cyclones Chapala and Megh in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa.

Pulses, including all kinds of dried beans and peas, are a cheap, delicious and highly nutritious source of protein and vital micronutrients that can greatly benefit people’s health and livelihoods, particularly in developing countries -- that was the UN's message at the launch of the International Year of Pulses 2016 today.