News archive 2017

After steadily declining for over a decade, global hunger is on the rise again, affecting 815 million people in 2016, or 11 per cent of the global population, says a new United Nations report on world food security and nutrition. At the same time, multiple forms of malnutrition are threatening the health of millions worldwide.

Speeding up efforts to reverse or prevent land degradation in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is vital in the next few years if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved.

Global food prices dipped in August, mainly as the prospect of bumper cereal harvests pushed up expectations for larger grain inventories. The FAO Food Price Index declined 1.3 percent from July, averaging 176.6 points in August.

Speaking at the conclusion of a four-day visit to Ethiopia, including to the drought-stricken Somali region, the heads of the United Nations food agencies made a joint call for greater investment in long-term activities that strengthen people’s resilience to drought and the impacts of climate shocks.

Ethiopia’s south-east is gripped by a devastating drought: rains have failed for the third consecutive year which has caused hunger to soar and malnutrition rates to rise to alarming levels. The heads of FAO, IFAD and WFP are in Ethiopia to see the response.

As the international community gathers this week for World Water Week, we profile a cooperative effort by FAO and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation to make water more accessible to vulnerable and water-scarce rural communities in a number of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva called for greater funding for a sustainable response to the refugee crisis in Uganda, after concluding a visit today to refugee settlements in the country’s north.

Thousands of school children in Syria are benefiting from highly nutritious fruit and vegetables through a new school garden and nutrition education programme. This is the first time school gardens have been introduced in Syria at the primary school level.

Crops that have been forgotten over the last century are being rediscovered. Scientists and policymakers are now beginning to recognize the value of so-called ‘orphan’ crops, affirming what local communities have known for generations.

Global warming is expected to have a significant impact on future yields of everything from rice to fish, particularly in countries situated closer to the equator, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned today.