A traditional farming system in the Southern Espinhaço Mountain Range of the Minas Gerais State in Brazil has been recognized as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). It is the first time a Brazilian site has won the GIAHS recognition.
While global attention has focused on the swarms of Desert Locusts attacking crops in East Africa, a number of other countries and regions are also confronting serious food security threats and require support, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has over the last five weeks implemented a series of precautionary measures to protect its employees and their families against the threat of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
The three United Nations Rome-based agencies dedicated to food and agriculture called today for bolder action to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls in the agricultural sector and beyond.
The effects of inadequate rainfall on agricultural production added two countries – Namibia and Tanzania – to FAO’s list of countries in need of external assistance for food, adding to strains triggered by desert locusts, says FAO's quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report.
The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly-traded food commodities, averaged 180.5 points in February, down 1.0 percent from the previous month but still 8.1 percent higher than a year earlier.
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), through the German Development Bank KfW, has contributed EUR 50 million ($54 million) to a resilience building programme to be implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu has welcomed a €17 million contribution from Germany to provide assistance to those directly affected by the Desert Locust upsurge in East Africa.
"Artificial Intelligence needs to be transparent, inclusive, socially beneficial and accountable," Qu said, adding: "We need to ensure the human-centric approach in designing and implementing artificial intelligence today and in the future.
“We will need to step up the alliance among key partners from all relevant sectors at the global level,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said today while opening the first meeting of the Steering Committee of the Global Action for Fall Armyworm Control.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today welcomed an €11 million contribution from the European Union as the UN agency steps up efforts to fight the Desert Locust upsurge which has now spread from East Africa to the Persian Gulf.
The locust upsurge affecting East Africa is a graphic and shocking reminder of this region's vulnerability. This is a scourge of biblical proportions. Yet as ancient as this scourge is, its scale today is unprecedented in modern times.
