News archive 2018

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have renewed their partnership to boost efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including the goal of Zero Hunger.

OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2018-2027 sees weakening growth in global demand for agricultural commodities and food, while anticipating continuing productivity improvements in the sector.

Vulnerable farming families in post-conflict areas in Iraq’s Ninewa plains, west of Mosul, will be able to better withstand shocks thanks to a European Union-funded FAO project that aims to increase household income while restoring local infrastructure.

The United Nations food standards body Codex Alimentarius Commission is meeting in Rome from 02 to 06 July 2018 to adopt food safety and quality standards.

Faced with the problem of an influx of Syrian refugees in Turkey needing work, and at the same time a lack of skilled agricultural workers, FAO stepped in to train the refugees, and host community members, and many have now found jobs. It means brighter futures for all.

Fall Armyworm keeps spreading to larger areas within countries in sub-Saharan Africa and becomes more destructive as it feeds on more crops and different parts of crops, increasingly growing an appetite for sorghum and millet, in addition to maize. The pest could spread to Northern Africa, Southern Europe and the Near East, warned the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today. The agency called for a massive scaling up of the Fall Armyworm campaign to train more than 500 000 farmers to manage the pest through Farmer Field Schools in sub-Saharan Africa.

Thanks to $6 million, FAO and Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative will scale up SEPAL (System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring), an innovative FAO digital platform that helps countries measure, monitor and report on their forests and land use.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and Pennsylvania State University joined forces to develop and launch the first app – Nuru – to help African farmers recognize Fall Armyworm, a new and fast-spreading crop pest in sub-Saharan Africa, so that they can take immediate steps to destroy it and curb its spread.

FAO training in Fall Armyworm mechanical control has helped family farmers in Kenya protect their crops from the devastating pest.

Food that ‘disappears’ from the food chain after harvest owing to spoilage could feed an estimated 48 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. A project by FAO, the African Union and the Rockefeller Foundation aims to help countries drastically reduce these post-harvest losses by 2030.