The Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture will be held at FAO Headquarters in Rome from 27 to 29 April 2011. The opening meeting will...[more]

An expert consultation workshop on seed policy formulation will be organized by FAO and ENSE/INRAN from 28 to 30 March in Milan. It will gather up to 30 participants including seed policy experts, Ministry of Agriculture officials, researchers, seed experts, representatives of...[more]

The Crop Calendar provides information about sowing and planting seasons and agronomic practices of the crops grown by farmers in a particular agro-ecological zone.[more]

With support from FAO, eight African countries, members or observers of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), agreed to launch the Forum for African Seeds Testing during the ISTA 29th Congress held in Cologne, Germany, on June 20th 2010.This is an important...[more]

For years, and especially after the 12 January Earthquake, many institutions have implemented seed relief interventions in Haiti. FAO has participated in June 2010 in the implementation of a Seed System Security Assessment in order to better target future seed interventions.[more]

Since the pre-independence era, African agriculture has focused on a narrow band of commodities that include food crops (cereals and pulses), oil crops (soybean, groundnut, sunflower) and industrial crops (coffee, cocoa, tea, oil palm and rubber tree). Vegetable crops which are...[more]

The plant genetic diversity is the biological basis of food security and supports the livelihoods of every person on Earth. The conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) is essential to ensure agriculture production and meet...[more]

For six weeks in February and March plant breeders and others in South and Southeast Asia debated and shared experiences in an on-line forum about the results of surveys on plant breeding capacity in the region. The forum was sponsored by the Global Initiative for Plant Breeding...[more]

In order to establish a sustainable seed supply and thereby facilitate food security of member countries, the Plant Production and Protection Division (AGP) started an initiative termed “Seed Alliance Without Boundaries (SAWIB)”. The seed based initiative will cut across crop...[more]

A new Regional Seed Association for Central Asia and the Caucasus was recently formed under the auspices of a FAO technical cooperation project with the technical guidance of FAO-AGP. The new Association groups together private and public-sector seed producers of 10 countries...[more]