News archive 2016

As the leading UN agency on animal health and pest control, FAO can assist affected nations with targeted interventions while ensuring that people and the environment are not exposed to health and other risks stemming from the inappropriate use of potentially dangerous chemicals.

South Sudan is facing unprecedented levels of food insecurity, as 2.8 million people - nearly 25 percent of the country's population - remain in urgent need of food assistance, and at least 40,000 people are on the brink of catastrophe, three UN agencies warned today.

Somalia will continue to face large-scale food insecurity between now and June 2016 as a result of poor rainfall and drought conditions in several areas, trade disruptions, and a combination of protracted and new population displacements.

The FAO Food Price Index fell in January, slipping 1.9 percent below its level in the last month of 2015, as prices of all the commodities it tracks fell, sugar in particular.

As world leaders met in London today to raise funds in support of millions of people affected by the ongoing conflict in Syria, FAO stressed the urgent need to help farming families produce food to meet basic needs.

Under the lead of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Initiative was developed by 19 international organizations that are committed to increasing the impact of youth employment policies and expanding country-level action on decent jobs for young women and men.

FAO will work with Colombia in building a durable peace and strengthening rural development in the country’s post-conflict stage, Director-General José Graziano da Silva said during a high-level visit to the Latin American nation.

Infectious animal-borne disease threats such as Ebola and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus are here to stay, and further painful episodes are likely to flare up or new disease threats will definitely emerge in the near future, Juan Lubroth, FAO’s chief veterinarian, said Tuesday.

More than half of the total population of Yemen -- some 14.4 million people - are food insecure, as ongoing conflict and import restrictions have reduced the availability of essential foods and sent prices soaring, FAO said today.

Heads of State of Latin America and the Caribbean, today approved a special Declaration on Food Security at a high-level meeting attended by the Director General of FAO.