News archive 2018

In March, the FAO Food Price Index averaged 172.8 points, 1.1 percent higher than in February and 0.7 percent above its value a year earlier.

Family farmers must remain central to bringing agroecology to scale, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva stressed in his closing remarks to the 2nd International Agroecology Symposium at FAO in Rome.

Since 2015, FAO supports El Ceibo in different ways, by providing technical support, facilitating access to new markets, and brokering agreements with the Bolivian government to protect the interests of small cocoa farmers.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva called for healthier and more sustainable food systems, and said agroecology can contribute to such a transformation. José Graziano da Silva made the call during his opening remarks at the 2nd International Agroecology Symposium in Rome (3-5 April).

A new report has sounded the alarm regarding surging levels of acute hunger. Some 124 million people in 51 countries were affected by acute food insecurity during 2017 - 11 million more people than the year before - according to the latest edition of the Global Report on Food Crises.

With forecasts pointing to below-average rains during April-June, urgent support is needed to build the resilience of pastoralist communities and avert a deterioration in livelihood and food security, FAO said in its Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) report.

Investing in green spaces in cities will help address urban pollution, climate change and lack of water supplies, said FAO ahead of the International Day of Forests (21 March 2018).

FAO presented new research, done with Global Water Partnership and Oregon State University, USA, on the nexus between water and migration at a high-level panel at World Water Forum in Brasilia.

"More than ever, regional and international cooperation is needed to promote knowledge sharing, and to mobilize the necessary funding to support date palm development," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said.

Natural disasters are costing farmers in the developing world billions of dollars each year, with drought emerging as the most destructive in a crowded field of threats that also includes floods, forest fires, storms, plant pests, animal diseases outbreaks, chemical spills and toxic algal blooms, says a new FAO report.