News archive 2016

Livestock keepers and policy makers worldwide are increasingly interested in harnessing animal biodiversity to improve production and food security on a warmer, more crowded planet, according to a new FAO report issued today.

Russia’s Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr) and FAO have agreed to enhance their cooperation aimed at improving the governance of land tenure.

With the war in Syria now approaching its sixth year, agricultural production has plummeted and food supplies are at an all-time low, pushing millions of people into hunger. FAO today called on governments to provide a boost in funding targeted at helping farmers keep their lands in production to prevent the situation from deteriorating even further.

A new FAO book out today takes a close look at how the world's major cereals maize, rice and wheat – which together account for an estimated 42.5 percent of human calories and 37 percent of our protein – can be grown in "Save and Grow" ways that respect and even leverage natural ecosystems.

The strongest El Niño weather episode in the last several decades has caused repeated crop failure, decimated livestock herds and driven some 10.2 million people across Ethiopia into food insecurity, FAO said today, as it presented its emergency response plan to urgently protect livestock and rebuild crop production in the Horn of Africa nation.

FAO Deputy Director-General for Natural Resources, Maria Helena Semedo spoke at the opening of an FAO-organized meeting at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) taking place during this year's International Green Week in Berlin, from 15-24 January 2016.

Prices of major food commodities declined for the fourth year in a row in 2015, averaging 19.1 percent below their previous-year’s levels. FAO’s Food Price Index averaged 164.1 percent over 2015 and ended the year even lower, at 154.1 points during the month of December.