Today is Earth Day, a time to reflect on and to take local actions to safeguard the land and the environments that sustain all life. We each play a part and all efforts for sustainability are worthwhile. In Adaköy, a village in the Yeniçağa district of Bolu, Kamil Yıldız farms in the quiet embrace of nature. Kamil leases idle fields in the village, cultivating a total of 300 decares of land. To sustain the family farm, he grows wheat, barley, oats, alfalfa, forage peas and silage maize. Most of these crops are used as animal feed, except for wheat, which he sells.

Within its ongoing efforts to strengthen Tajikistan's agricultural sector, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has successfully completed a Technical Cooperation Programme Facility project on cooperative development and to strengthen rural institutions under the national Agrarian Reform Programme. The FAO project helped improve the working environment of cooperatives and strengthened the capacity of national authorities to support the development of cooperatives and rural institutions. On a local level, the project supported four agricultural cooperatives.

In 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) began supporting the Ministry of Agriculture of Turkmenistan and its Land Resources Service in modernizing and digitalizing the country’s land cadastre through the technical cooperation project “Support to the establishment of a Digital Land Cadastre”. This project is now concluding. A meeting was held 9 April in Ashgabat to mark the finalization of the project, recap the achievements and look to future actions to continue improving the digital cadastre system.

Living amidst grapevines that have been around since the time of his ancestors, it is no wonder Givi Chubinidze became convinced to follow in their footsteps. Here in the green valleys of Georgia’s Imereti region, bordered by the Likhi mountain range, endemic blue and purple grape varieties, such as tsitska, krakhuna and adanasuri, have been a part of the local landscape and cultural heritage for centuries.

The One Health approach recognizes the interconnections between people and ecosystems and aims to sustainably balance the health of people, plants, animals and the environment. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is strongly committed to this integrated, unifying approach. This was the core message, delivered by FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia Viorel Gutu at a high-level meeting of the Regional One Health Coordination Mechanism today in Copenhagen when the chairmanship of the Mechanism was handed over from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) to FAO, ensuring continued collaboration on One Health priorities in the region.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is supporting Turkmenistan’s efforts in enhancing these two priority areas, within the framework of two projects, implemented with the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP), “Strengthening technological innovation and research capacities for sustainable and climate-resilient cotton production” and “Support for the improvement of pest management capacities for cereal crops”. The implementation of the project started after FAO successfully held a joint inception workshop for the two projects in March, in Ashgabat, bringing together key actors to take initial steps in the work of the projects.

Inland capture fisheries play a vital role in supporting households, economies and cultures across Europe, through both commercial and recreational fishing. According to capture and landing statistics reported to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the total production from inland capture fisheries in Europe reached 167 187 tonnes in 2021, accounting for 1.5 percent of total global production, making this sector highly important for the region. Yet, climate change poses several challenges to the survival of fish species across Europe. It creates significant and often unpredictable impacts on inland fisheries, and it can be an exacerbating factor for other stressors. Foreseeably, this will lead to shifts in freshwater habitats which are mainly expected to be unfavourable for inland fisheries.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is collaborating with the Scuola Politecnica di Design, the first school for design disciplines in Italy, founded in Milan in 1954. Following an established dialogue, this cooperation aims to offer both online and offline classes focused on FAO's critical role in global food security and the enhancement of quality of life through innovative agrifood systems.

In the Khatlon region of Tajikistan, farming of cotton, wheat and other crops has long been the backbone of rural livelihoods. Safarmad Gadoev, a farmer from the city of Kulob, was one of many who relied on the production of these crops to support his family. But the challenges of cotton and wheat farming—rising production costs, fluctuating market prices, water scarcity, and the impacts of climate change—made it difficult for him to earn a stable income. 

If the people of Europe and Central Asia are to have food on their plates, they must have water security. Moreover, water security is a catalyst for transforming the food and agriculture sectors of the region to become more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable. Therefore, sustainable water management practices are a prerequisite for farmers’ resilience against climate challenges and, thus, for safeguarding food security. This is the central message of the 2024 Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition report, released today.

A project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2022, addressing land degradation neutrality (LDN) issues, is progressing to foster a coherent policy environment and track progress towards achieving the national LDN targets. Land abandonment in the last 25 years has adversely affected 1.2 million rural people. 

Recognizing the critical role of municipalities to reduce food loss and waste (FLW), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has recently released a  publication on “Food Recovery and Distribution – A Practical Guide for Favourable Policies and Legal Frameworks in Europe and Central Asia”. This report provides timely guiding principles and recommendations for policymakers, particularly at the local level, to analyse and review their legal and policy frameworks to facilitate food recovery and redistribution—key elements of broader strategies to prevent and reduce FLW, and to support a circular bioeconomy. 

Peste des petits (PPR) ruminants outbreaks in Europe, effecting Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Hungary highlight the need prevention and control of this disease. The Food and Veterinary Agency (FVA) of North Macedonia has organized a simulation exercise on PPR with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and experts from the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched an initiative to strengthen welding education in Armenia. This is a component of the “Forest resilience of Armenia, enhancing adaptation and rural green growth via mitigation” project. It is implemented by FAO and the Environmental Project Implementation Unit of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Armenia. The project is funded by the Green Climate Fund and co-funded by FAO, the Austrian Development Agency, the World Wildlife Fund and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Italy with significant financial support provided by the Government of Armenia.

As part of the Digital Villages Initiative (DVI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has facilitated a twinning study tour between pilot digital villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Almería SmartAgriHub in Spain. Over a week in February 2025, representatives from these villages – alongside key institutions such as the University of East Sarajevo Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Agriculture – participated in an in-depth knowledge exchange. The goal of the participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina was to learn from Spain’s pioneering agricultural innovation model and explore the potential to implement similar strategies in their own communities.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) held an interactive lecture series at the Agricultural University of Tirana, engaging students in discussions on climate-smart agriculture and international plant protection standards. This event, part of the Business4SDGs Phase II project, aimed to bridge scientific research with practical implementation, equipping Albania’s future agricultural professionals with knowledge to address pressing global challenges.

Improving the food security and nutrition of children, especially those in rural areas or from poor families, through school feeding is a priority in Uzbekistan, and one which is supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Schools are an ideal setting to give children and adolescents the good diet they need in order to grow, develop, be protected from disease and have the energy to study, learn and be physically active. School meal programmes reach children at an age when positive food and health habits are being formed—and an increased awareness of nutrition can be a spillover benefit to families and the wider community.

African swine fever (ASF) is a serious animal disease that may kill up to 100 percent of infected animals, both domestic pigs and wild boar, and for which, currently, there is no commercially available vaccine or treatment. It poses significant economic, livelihood and biodiversity threats to the region's pig sector and hunting.

Empowering rural women is central to fulfilling the mission of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to eradicate hunger and ensure food security globally. Women play critical roles in agrifood systems as farmers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. However, their contributions are often limited by systemic inequalities that impact their working conditions and economic opportunities. 

Ensuring food safety and quality remains a top priority for North Macedonia. Codex Alimentarius standards are a crucial set of tools to ensure food safety and quality across the food chain from production through to consumption. Co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Food and Veterinary Agency of North Macedonia, a national event was held on 19 February dedicated to promoting the Codex standards. The event was another step in strengthening the country’s food safety and quality through the FAO/WHO Codex Trust Fund project.