News archive 2016

Farmers in southern Madagascar, hit by three years of devastating drought, urgently need more support so they can plant crops in time for the December and January planting seasons, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said today.

Recognizing the disproportionate burden that climate change places on small island developing states (SIDS), FAO will support six African island nations in their efforts to make their agriculture more resilient to climate shocks and boost economic development, the agency said today.

The world must rapidly move to scale up actions and ambitions on climate change FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva told delegates at the United Nations Climate Change conference (COP22) in Morocco today.

A groundbreaking map of restoration opportunities along Africa's Great Green Wall has been launched at the UN climate change conference, based on collection and analysis of crucial land-use information to boost action in Africa's drylands to increase the resilience of people and landscapes to climate change.

Food production in Syria has hit a record low as widespread insecurity and unfavourable weather conditions in parts of the country continued to hamper access to land, farming supplies and markets, making it ever more difficult for farmers to maintain their livelihoods and feed the war-torn country.

Mounting evidence that food systems may be major conduits of anti-microbial resistance (AMR) point to the need for greater vigilance over the way antibiotics are used on farms, according to a new FAO report, Drivers, Dynamics and Epidemiology of Antimicrobial Resistance in Animal Production

FAO is joining forces with the South Centre, an intergovernmental organization of developing countries, to help the countries of the Global South eliminate hunger and malnutrition, reduce poverty, address climate change and achieve sustainable rural development under the umbrella of South-South cooperation.

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 172.6 points in October, up 0.7 percent for the month and 9.1 percent from a year earlier, with the staple grains’ index rising for the first time in three months.

More than 100 lawmakers from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Spain highlighted the imperative need to act against the effects of climate change through legislation, at the opening of the VII Forum of the Parliamentary Front against Hunger.

The “truly universal, comprehensive and inspirational” nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development puts a premium on “system wide coherence and coordination” across all United Nations agencies, the head of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) said today at a meeting in Rome.