Unlocking the potential of agricultural innovations, be it simple solutions or satellite-based technologies, will help prevent a drought from turning into famine and forced displacement and to reverse desertification, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today. Speaking at the opening of the 2nd International Seminar on Drought and Agriculture at...

WaPOR, FAO’s portal to monitor Water Productivity through Open-access of Remotely sensed derived data, gives users access to a wide variety of near real-time satellite data on water productivity. This information can be used by governments and research institutes to design strategies to increase water productivity and farmers’ resilience to...

This new report, launched during the 2nd International seminar on Drought in agriculture, "Counting Crops and Drops: Let's Grow the Future Together" describes the quality assessment of the FAO’s data portal to monitor Water Productivity through Open access of Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR 1.0). The WaPOR 1.0 data portal...

A disastrous drought in Somalia could leave some 2.2 million people - nearly 18 percent of the population - faced with severe hunger during the July-September period, FAO warned today. The UN agency issued a special alert on Somalia, indicating that the number of hungry people in the country this year...

Wind, rain and industrial farming techniques accelerates soil erosion and can be mitigated before the world faces calamitous losses in terms of agricultural yields and critical ecosystem functions. "The negative impacts of soil erosion are ever more evident and the need to work jointly ever more urgent," FAO Deputy Director-General, Climate...

One of the key ingredients to a #ZeroHunger future is the soil beneath our feet. Although it may not look like much, soil is full of water, nutrients and microorganisms that are vital for growing our food. However, soil is a finite resource – restoring even a few centimetres of...

The Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (GSER19), ‘Stop soil erosion, Save our future’ will be held  from 15-17 May 2019, at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Headquarters in Rome, Italy. This science-policy meeting is co-organized by the UN FAO and its Global Soil Partnership (GSP), the Intergovernmental Technical...

Writing to Pope Francis, FAO's Director-General has pointed to the need to safeguard the world's water resources so that they can benefit every person in every country. "Access to clean water and sanitation is essential for life, and it is the basis for maintaining a healthy life and helping millions of...

"Water and Land are arguably the most precious resources to the countries of the Near East and North Africa region,” the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) declared today.  “Food security, agricultural development and improved livelihoods for rural communities depend on access to good quality land and water systems, which are...