News archive 2017

International School Meals Day, celebrated around the world today, is a timely reminder of the need to promote healthy eating habits for all children through sustainable policies, including the acquisition of food from family farmers.

Leaders from the three UN Rome-based agencies today marked International Women’s Day by reinforcing their commitments to step up efforts to invest in the capacities of rural women as key agents of change in building a world without hunger.

Actively involving indigenous peoples and local communities in wildlife conservation is key to maintaining biodiversity and ensuring sustainable rural livelihoods, FAO said today on the occasion of World Wildlife Day.

Famine has been declared in South Sudan, and the food security situation is of grave concern in northern Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, even as global food supply conditions are robust, says the new Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. Some 37 countries are in need of external assistance for food.

The FAO Food Price Index rose slightly in February, marking its seventh consecutive monthly rise, led by increasing wheat and maize prices.The FAO Food Price Index averaged 175.5 percent in February, marking a 0.5 percent increase from its revised January value and 17.2 percent above its February 2016 level.

During talks at the Italian Premier's official residence, Graziano da Silva reiterated FAO support for Italy's Presidency of the G7, in particular the G7 Agriculture Ministers Summit scheduled to place in Bergamo on 14-15 October 2017.

As conflict continues, the food security situation in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin is drastically deteriorating, FAO warned today, as it called for swift and decisive action from the international community to protect the livelihoods of millions of families dependent on farming, livestock and fishing.

The second edition of the Regional Overview of Food Insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa (2016) underscores how severe food insecurity and poverty pose a major challenge to the region's ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030.

Mankind's future ability to feed itself is in jeopardy due to intensifying pressures on natural resources, mounting inequality, and the fallout from a changing climate, says a new FAO report.

The heads of three UN agencies issue a joint call for urgent action to allow aid to reach people facing starvation in famine-hit areas of South Sudan.