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Efforts to end hunger and fight the effects of climate change in the Pacific Islands will hinge on the success of sustainable development, including wise use of oceans and fisheries, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva told ministers from the region today. “There can be no truly ‘green economy’ without a ‘blue economy’, one that makes the sustainable development of oceans and fishery resources a priority,” Graziano da Silva said. “The importance...

Containment of the A(H7N9) influenza virus in China, which has been confirmed in 34 people, including nine who died, will require the implementation of strong biosecurity measures. Unlike other influenza strains, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1, the new virus is difficult to detect in poultry, because it produces almost no signs of disease in birds, Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific...

FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific Hiroyuki Konuma today briefed Ambassadors and senior embassy officials from some 25 FAO member countries with embassies in Bangkok on the new FAO Director General’s Medium Term Plan (MTP) 2014-17 and the Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) 2014-15. The MTP and PWB will be presented to FAO’s governing Conference in June 2013 for adoption. The document refocuses FAO’s strategic...

The promotion of underutilized indigenous food crops such as Sago palm, which has a high starch yield potential and grows in swamps and wetlands with minimal competition from other food crops for land and water use, is of growing importance as the developing world is headed towards serious future food security challenges in alleviating widespread chronic hunger, Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations announced today that earlier this week it designated the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (HVRI), in the Heilongjiang Province of the People’s Republic of China (PR China), as the FAO reference centre for animal influenza. The designation of FAO reference status, awarded by the FAO Director General, is based on a competitive selection and evaluation process. It is an outcome of many...

First forecasts for the 2013 wheat harvest point to production increasing to 690 million tonnes – 4.3 percent up on 2012. This would be the second largest crop on record, according to the latest issue of FAO’s quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report (CPFS). While the production increase is expected mostly in Europe, prospects for the 2013 wheat crop in the Far East are generally favourable with output expected to...

The Bangkok Recommendations were today unanimously adopted at a regional workshop to promote greater employment opportunities for disabled people in the agribusiness sector. The 11 recommendations will serve as pathway to greater employment opportunities in the agribusiness sector for people with disabilities. Disabled people and their families account for about 40 percent of Asia’s total population. Though disability-inclusive initiatives are a growing trend, greater efforts are needed to increase job opportunities...

A regional workshop opened today to promote disability-inclusive agribusiness. The 2-day workshop brought together the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Nippon Foundation in a joint effort to work towards a disability-inclusive private sector engagement. According to the World Report on Disability, a joint publication of the World Health Organisation and the World Bank, disabled people comprise 15 percent...

A consultation with development partners and donors in support of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), today called for more focused efforts to reduce poverty and hunger in South Asia. The consultation was jointly organized by FAO and the SAARC Secretariat in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank. South Asia, despite continued efforts to reduce hunger, remains home to more than half of the total hungry population in Asia....

FAO and TABLE FOR TWO (TFT) International today announced the signing of a 3-year agreement aimed at jointly improving nutrition in Asia while reducing hunger in the region with the long term goal of building a world without hunger and poverty. The total number of people who suffer from chronic hunger in the Asia-Pacific region was 563 million in 2010-12, or 65 percent of the world total. Hunger in Asia...