The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union hosted an event in Brussels this week to present best practices and initiatives carried out by the Regional Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for Europe and Central Asia, located in Budapest. The conference marked the opening of a photo exhibit, offering a visual tour of FAO’s work in the region. The event discussed ways to increase resilience and competitiveness of the food and agriculture sectors of Europe and Central Asia, with a particular emphasis on FAO’s work in the Western Balkans, green agriculture, sustainable diets, preventing food loss and waste, resilience against natural disasters, and digital agriculture.

The growing recognition of sustainable agrifood systems in addressing climate change is reflected in international negotiations at the recent Conferences of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The day dedicated to Food, Agriculture and Water on 19 November 2024 at COP29 highlights this intensified focus. The day opened with the launch of the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers (Harmoniya Initiative), a collaboration between the COP29 Presidency and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) brought a critical message to the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan: increased investment in agrifood systems is essential to address the climate crisis. Over the two weeks of the international meeting and through events, initiatives and several publications, FAO emphasized that agrifood systems hold the solutions to tackling major interlinked challenges facing people and the planet, including climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, food insecurity, and poverty.

Avian influenza, often referred to as bird flu, is a major transboundary disease with zoonotic potential. By 2024, more than 800 cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus were reported across 23 countries. The disease is present and actively spreading across Europe as well. While avian influenza viruses do not presently transmit easily between humans, continued circulation in poultry could lead to mutations that increase human-to-human transmissibility. In response, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is offering online training to equip European veterinarians, who are the first responders, with the skills needed to detect and react to this cross-species virus, helping to mitigate severe health impacts on both animals and people.

Five countries in Europe and Central Asia became better prepared to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in their agrifood systems through support of a project implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funded by the Russian Federation. Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan took initial actions on AMR in the agrifood sectors, with special emphasis on the livestock sector, and implemented measures to reduce the development and spread of AMR.

The agricultural sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina faces significant gender disparities. Women account for nearly half (49 percent) of the rural population and 20 percent of employed women work in the agriculture sector, yet only 18 percent of farms are managed by women and only 38 percent of women own or have part-ownership of agricultural land. Strengthening capacities of women from rural areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina and supporting agriculture and rural development policies with an emphasis on gender equality are among the main goals of the project "Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural Areas," implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UN Women and financed by Sweden.

Albania, with United Nations partners, has launched a groundbreaking joint programme leveraging digitalization to advance sustainability goals with systemic interventions particularly targeted at smallholder farmers.  

The “Digital Agriculture and Rural Transformation" (DART), is a three-year (2024—2027) programme financed by the Digital Transformation Window call of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Fund with a total budget of USD 3.3 million.

Raised with livestock, Mahammad and his community have long depended on animals as their main source of income. Moving around together solidified bonds among herding families, fostering collaboration that laid the foundation for their future cooperative. Together, they established Eko-Süd (Eco-Milk), chaired by Mahammad, with the aim of maximizing the production of milk and other dairy products.

In 2023, a new chapter began for Eco-Milk when the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the Government of Azerbaijan, provided Mahammad’s cooperative with essential tools, including feed grinders, a dairy processing facility and generators. These tools made basic tasks much easier and faster, allowing the cooperative to focus on what truly matters: producing high-quality milk and dairy products for their community.

In the village of Koram, around 150 kilometers east of Almaty in Kazakhstan, Aishagul's life has been marked by her husband’s debilitating injury and the severe illnesses of her elderly parents-in-law.A turning point came when Aishagul's sister-in-law, aware of her dire situation, introduced her to a greenhouse harvesting training programme. This initiative was part of the broader Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) project, known as CACILM-2, and funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

New approaches and strengthened collaboration on restoration are needed to ensure that the Mediterranean’s forest ecosystems thrive, experts from the region will hear this week as they gather for the 8th Mediterranean Forest Week (8MFW) in Barcelona, Spain. 

The week, entitled “Working together for sustainable and resilient Mediterranean forests – Towards a collaborative roadmap”, is organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the European Forest Institute Mediterranean Facility (EFIMED) and the Joint Organizing Committee.

World Food Day is commemorated every year on 16 October, the date FAO was founded in 1945. The theme this year – Right to foods for a better life and a better future – was meant to highlight access to adequate, safe, affordable and nutritious food as a fundamental human right. FAO works to build a just and equitable world in which everyone has a food-secure, nutritious, varied and affordable diet. To highlight this mandate on World Food Day, FAO offices in Europe and Central Asia organized activities of an impressively wide variety in nature, format and scope.

On 18 October, the local landowners, by a qualified majority, approved the re-allotment plan, marking Chiflik as the eighth village in North Macedonia to undertake land consolidation. This initiative is part of the European Union-funded “Enhancing Land Consolidation in North Macedonia” project, co-funded and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Economy.

For more than a year, FAO has been facilitating and supporting the accession process in Tajikistan under an ongoing pesticide management and disposal project from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in Central Asia and Türkiye. These efforts have paid off, with the Republic of Tajikistan officially ratifying the Rotterdam Convention on 1 October 2024.

Representing 22 national parliaments from across Europe and Central Asia, including both those from the European Union (EU) and non-EU countries, participants at a regional meeting of parliamentarians on agrifood systems have raised their voices for the transformation of rural agrifood systems to be more inclusive and more resilient. After two days of intense and constructive discussions, the regional meeting, hosted by the Speaker of the Parliament of Albania in Tirana, and facilitated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), concluded yesterday.

For centuries, camels were indispensable for the people of Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous and landlocked country in Central Asia, where they once carried yurts and belongings for nomadic families traversing the highlands. They also gave them milk, meat, and wool. “The camel can lift the heaviest load” is still a popular saying here, even though most Kyrgyz are sedentary today, with other sources of income. And even the few who still move their livestock to highland pastures in summer, use pickup trucks to get around. As a result, only 260 camels are left today – of some 12 000 that dwelled the Kyrgyz plains around the 1950s. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has released a flagship report entitled The state of food systems in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC) region, offering a detailed analysis of agrifood systems across the Black Sea region, highlighting key trends, challenges and opportunities in 12 countries. The publication was produced under the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization Regional Cooperation Centre for Sustainable Food Systems project, which was launched in December 2020 through the FAO–Türkiye Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture.  

Access to diverse, nutritious, affordable and safe food is what we all need for an active and healthy life. This, coupled with intersectoral collaboration and the attributes of a balanced diet, were underscored at today’s joint World Food Day event of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Hungarian Food Bank Association, and the Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary in Budapest. The highlights of the event were the arrival of 30 000 kilos of food donations, delivered by a convoy of trucks, and the preparation and sharing of sustainable and affordable dishes from famous Hungarian chefs.

The role of women in agriculture and rural livelihoods and the opportunities for their economic participation, financial inclusion, and contribution to climate resilience is the central theme of a roundtable discussion that will take place today in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The event is part of the project “Women driving resilience in agriculture and rural areas,” implemented by UN Women and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with support from Sweden. The roundtable discussion is scheduled for 15 October, the International Day of Rural Women for which this year’s theme is the role of rural women in conserving and protecting nature for our collective future.

The week of 7–11 October has been all about the European fisheries and aquaculture sectors in Pula, Croatia with the international symposium, "Building a sustainable future for inland fisheries and aquaculture in a time of multiple stressors" and the 32nd Session of the European Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Advisory Commission (EIFAAC), held in back-to-back succession. The events brought together 120 policy makers and scientists who looked at the status and trends in European inland fisheries, potential for aquaculture growth, and the sectors’ sustainable future in a time of multiple stressors.

For nearly 120 years, farmers in the northeastern region of modern-day Croatia have been making and enjoying artisanal dried sausage from high-quality local pork. Traditionally eaten on special occasions and often included in holiday gift baskets, Baranjski kulen (Croatian for a delicatessen sausage from the Baranja region) is now gaining popularity as an international delicacy. That's in no small part thanks to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) who worked with the Croatian government to help Baranjski kulen gain its Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status from the European Union (EU) over 10 years ago.