With a client base of around 500 farmers, Blessing Andrew is an active veterinary animal health worker in her community. In fact, she is the sole practicing woman veterinary paraprofessional (VPP) in Sanga, in Nigeria’s southern Kaduna State. In general, the animal health profession remains heavily male-dominated across most of Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, where women comprise an estimated 20-30 percent of the national animal health workforce.

Under the Africa Phytosanitary Programme (APP), funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, Zambia's national plant protection organization - the Plant Quarantine and Phytosanitary Service (PQPS), successfully conducted a three-day training session for NPPO technical staff and stakeholders on the application of geospatial techniques in pest surveillance.

Supplies of most of the world’s major food commodities are expected to be adequate in 2024/25, although extreme weather, rising geopolitical tensions, sudden policy changes and other factors could all potentially tip the delicate global demand-supply balances and impact prices and global food security, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been working with the Jubaland Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy to increase fish production and strengthen fisheries cooperatives. The USAID-funded project entitled ‘Reducing Communities’ Vulnerability to Drought and External Shocks (RECOVER)’ has equipped fisherfolk with fibreglass motorized boats and gear to access deeper fishing waters for bigger fishing hauls. 

The 175th Session of the FAO Council, a pivotal governing body of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), began on Monday with Director-General QU Dongyu urging Members to remain focused on core objectives, notably the transformation of global agrifood systems, and “to ensure we do not allow history to repeat itself through famines and destructions of livelihoods.”

The benchmark for world food commodity prices increased for the third consecutive month in May, as higher prices of cereals and dairy products outweighed decreases in quotations for sugar and vegetable oils, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported Friday.

World fisheries and aquaculture production has hit a new high, with aquaculture production of aquatic animals surpassing capture fisheries for the first time, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released today. The 2024 edition of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) said global fisheries and aquaculture production in 2022 surged to 223.2 million tonnes, a 4.4 percent increase from 2020.

Addressing the scourge of food insecurity, whether provoked by natural disaster or human-generated crises, requires ensuring the availability, accessibility, and affordability of nutritious food. While these elements of food security may vary by country and by season, one element - food availability - should not be an issue today when collectively we produce enough food to feed the world’s population. 

Acute food insecurity is set to increase in magnitude and severity in 18 hunger “Hotspots”, a new United Nations early warning report has revealed today. The report spotlights the urgent need of assistance to prevent famine in Gaza and the Sudan, and further deterioration in the devastating hunger crises in Haiti, Mali, and South Sudan. It also warns of the lingering impact of El Niño and the looming threat of La Niña that risks bringing further climate extremes that could upend lives and livelihoods.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Université Laval (UL) have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The five-year MoU outlines actions to ensure food security by combatting climate change and promoting the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity for resilient agrifood systems.

The Global Soil Partnership, bringing together hundreds of diverse actors focused on improving the health of our soils to promote healthier and more resilient agrifood systems, opened a key meeting today with a call for urgent action to meet its objectives amid a range of complex crises. Hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and including FAO Members and over 700 partners, together “we champion a vision of a world in which soils are healthy and resilient, ensuring the sustained provision of  ecosystem functions and services for all, leaving no one behind,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said in opening remarks to the Partnership’s 12th Plenary Assembly, highlighting the need to ensure sustainable soil management based on the three “Rs”: reduce, re-use, and renew.

Without an immediate and major step change in aid to Sudan, we will face a nightmare scenario: A famine will take hold in large parts of the country. More people will flee to neighboring countries in search of sustenance and safety. More children will succumb to disease and malnutrition. Women and girls, already bearing the brunt of the conflict, will face even greater suffering and dangers.

Eaten by over one billion people, the potato is the third most available food crop globally – after rice and wheat, making it a crucial staple. And today for the first time, it was celebrated with its very own International Day, as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partners highlighted the potato’s significance and called for more investments to tap into its full potential.

The potato has a long history that began in the Andes of South America about 8 000 years ago when communities of hunters and gatherers began domesticating wild potato plants that grew around Lake Titicaca. Much later, around the 16th century, the Spanish brought the potato to Europe from Peru and began growing it in their country.

QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has stressed the need to control food safety from the start – from our soil, water, agricultural and post-harvest practices – underscoring the crucial role that nuclear technologies can play in setting science-based food standards.

From bees to earthworms, from coral reefs to rain forests - biodiversity helps to ensure our food diversity and must be key to transforming our food production systems. On International Day for Biological Diversity, FAO launched its updated action plan for Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Agricultural Sectors and is prepared to embark on several new biodiversity-related initiatives.

After a week-long mission in Bangladesh, visiting projects of the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Ambassador Jeffrey Prescott, the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, called on the international community to continue its support to the Rohingya refugees and their Bangladeshi host communities for a crisis that shows no signs of abating.

Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Government of Pakistan, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), hosted a technical consultation workshop of the newly launched project, "Technical Assistance for Animal Health Systems to Address Emerging and Priority Zoonotic Diseases and Health Threats in Pakistan." By utilizing a unified One Health approach, this project aims to strengthen animal and public health systems, reduce future pandemic risks and address health threats across Pakistan through an integrated One Health approach.

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today called for stepped up efforts to protect plant health, underlining that “safeguarding the health of plants means that we are safeguarding the health of the planet.” Qu was speaking at an event to mark the International Day of Plant Health 2024.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is marking this year’s International Day of Plant Health by shining a light on the importance of leveraging innovation to protect plants, which are indispensable for sustaining life on earth.