The FAO Food Price Index averaged 120.9 points in April, 1.7 percent higher than March and 30.8 percent higher than its level in the same month last year. The index reached its highest level since 2014, and in nominal terms is 12 percent below its all-time peak in February 2011.

The Desert Locust is a formidable enemy and in the past year, waves of the insect swept East Africa, Yemen and southwest Asia. FAO, with partners and donors, developed high-tech tools that revolutionised locust surveillance and treatment, helping affected countries to effectively control them.

The number of people facing acute food insecurity and needing urgent life and livelihood-saving assistance has hit a five-year high in 2020 in countries beset by food crises, an annual report launched today by the Global Network Against Food Crises has found.

The 166th Session of the FAO Council ended today with its Members praising the Organization’s main actions and initiatives to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to foster sustainable development, as well as supporting the proposed documents to guide the Organization’s work over the next years.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is becoming an increasing threat to global health, food safety and security, potentially also leading to substantial socio-economic damage, and to turn this around, the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, today called for coherent, swift and decisive action.