News archive 2020

On the occasion of its 75th Anniversary and the 3rd World Statistics Day, FAO is publishing today its revamped Statistical Yearbook, which weighs in at 366 pages this year and also offers digital interactivity and downloadable data sets for the first time.

The Director-General praised the efficient response of the region so far to keep food supply chains working amid the impacts of the pandemic."I have seen that your countries adopted a slogan in this pandemic: Agriculture will not stop!"

The global World Food Day ceremony in Rome introduced by FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and featuring high-level participants from around the world was followed by a lecture from Joachim von Braun from Germany.

India has minted a commemorative coin to celebrate World Food Day and the 75th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Today, World Food Day marks the 75th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The Director-General QU Dongyu today was joined by Italian authorities for the presentation of two video mapping shows in Rome (one at FAO's headquarters and the other at the Colosseum) to celebrate FAO's 75th anniversary on World Food Day.

The package will also help to strengthen the longer-term resilience of the food system, including production, processing and transport. It includes immediate technical and policy assistance as well as strategic inputs to support the transformation of food systems after the crisis. The initiative will look at investment options for urban food, low or zero carbon value chains and more efficient distribution systems, including e-marketing.

Mobile technologies and digital agriculture hold great promise for the world’s farmers, making it all the more important to foster appropriate institutions able to generate innovation whose benefits reach smallholders and disadvantaged groups, Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Kremer said today.

Promoting innovation and applying digital technologies in agri-food systems, as well as reducing food loss and waste, are vital to step up the fight against hunger and poverty. This was FAO’s main message at the opening of the High-Level Special Event on Strengthening Global Governance of Food Security and Nutrition.

Millions of agricultural workers - waged and self-employed - while feeding the world, regularly face high levels of working poverty, malnutrition and poor health, and suffer from a lack of safety and labour protection as well as other types of abuse. With low and irregular incomes and a lack of social support, many of them are spurred to continue working, often in unsafe conditions, thus exposing themselves and their families to additional risks.