Agriculture in the Near East is likely to suffer losses because of high temperature, droughts, floods and soil degradation threatening the food security of many countries, FAO said today.

In advocating for and supporting international and national efforts to achieve the food security objectives endorsed by the World Food Summit and reflected in the Millennium Development Goals, FAO and its partners are being called upon to assist the international community in facing new global challenges that relate to the close inter-linkages among food security, climate change and bioenergy. Such challenges demand a more integrated and comprehensive response within broader strategies designed to address mitigation of and adaptation to the impacts of climate change and bioenergy, especially for the most vulnerable populations. The recent thirty-fourth session of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Conference called for a series of expert meetings on climate change and bioenergy, to be held between January and March 2008, which will be followed by a High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy held in Rome, Italy from 3 to 5 June 2008.