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Soaring demand for milk and dairy products will be driven by an insatiable Asian thirst and appetite for decades to come, delegates at an FAO-sponsored regional meeting on dairy production heard today. While that is a positive trend, there are challenges to ensure demand is met in a sustainable way and that smallholder producers also profit from increased production, the FAO said today. Public and private sector experts from the world’s livestock...

The success of sustainable long-term development in Asia and the Pacific will depend on the region’s ability to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, a senior FAO Official today told a UN forum on regional sustainable development to 2015 and beyond. “FAO’s vision for Rio+20 and beyond is to end hunger and make the transition to a sustainable agriculture and food system,” said Sumiter Broca on behalf of Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General...

A new multi-stakeholder network has vowed to collaborate in the fight against post-harvest food losses and food waste in Thailand, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today. The formation of Save Food Network Thailand (SFNET) was inspired by the regional Save Food Asia-Pacific Campaign, in which Thailand is among some ten countries across the region participating.   The problem of food loss and food waste cannot be overstated. Worldwide, 30...

In its first major forecast for 2014, cereal production is estimated at 2,458 million tonnes (including milled rice), down by 60 million metric tonnes, or some 2.4 percent, from the 2013 record, the FAO’s biannual Food Outlook reports today. This plunge has been attributed to a 1.9 percent decline in wheat production and a drop of 3.9 percent in coarse grains. “What we are seeing is a tightening of the supply/demand balance,...

Tens of thousands of farmers are bringing in their first rice harvest just six months after one of the worst typhoons to ever hit the Philippines left their fields in tatters and their livelihoods at risk, FAO announced today. After Typhoon Haiyan hit the central Philippines on 8 November, 2013, the situation was dire. More than 6,000 people lost their lives, while some 600,000 hectares of farmland were destroyed, leaving millions...

Six traditional farming systems in China, Iran and South Korea known for their unique characteristics and approaches to sustainability have been designated Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) by FAO. They include Iran’s Qanat Irrigation system, an ancient network of farms that have survived for nearly three millennia; a 22-thousand-kilometer system of black stone walls built from volcanic rock in Jeju, South Korea; and the traditional Gudeuljang Irrigated rice terraces...

China and Mongolia are moving forward to implement activities following an agreement reached last month on South-South cooperation, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization announced today. The two countries and the FAO signed the Memorandum of Understanding in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on 14 March. The South-South Cooperation (SSC) Tripartite Agreement between Mongolia, the People’s Republic of China and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was signed during the...

Despite climatic shifts and natural disasters plaguing some rice producing countries, the 2013 season has produced more rice than expected, adding to the ninth straight year of rice surplus or ‘carry over,’ the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported today.   As farmers in many countries, particularly in Asia, begin the last harvests of the 2013 season, several countries have raised their 2013 production estimates above those reported in...

Small scale coconut farmers in the Philippines will soon receive assistance to restore their livelihoods severely affected by last year’s Typhoon Haiyan, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said today. It is estimated that in Region VIII alone, some 33 million coconut trees were either damaged or destroyed, affecting  the livelihoods of more than one million coconut farmers. Given that coconut trees take six to eight years to reach productivity, small-scale coconut...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) urges people to stay alert for influenza A(H7N9), especially in light of the upcoming Qingming festival on 5 April 2014, which is celebrated in China and some of its neighbouring countries and will last approximately three days. The festival, which is a yearly family event for honouring ancestors, is predicted to correspond to an increase in the purchase, slaughter and...