With an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economies globally. Kyrgyzstan is not exempt from the compound and complex risks arising from unsafe food. In response, the country has taken steps to increase the effectiveness of its food safety and quality standards across its food and agriculture sector. A new project implemented jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan, aims to enhance the effectiveness of the quality and food safety control systems operating in this Central Asian country.

Nino Kavtaradze’s skills and experience processing fruits and making cheeses provided her with income for vital cancer treatment and equipped her to act as Lead Farmer in an FAO initiative. Although she has worked as dairy farmer for 30 years, Nino still gained new knowledge from the FAO Farmer Field School, which she hosted in her home for 30 women farmers.

By helping communities avoid or lessen the impact of disasters, efforts to reduce and manage disaster risk can save lives and protect livelihoods. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports countries in developing disaster risk reduction and management systems for their agriculture sectors, not only to respond to disaster impacts but also to increase the resilience of at-risk populations by combining prevention, mitigation and preparedness.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has trained Armenian farmers’ formal and non-formal groups in social media to modernize the way rural communities tell their stories and promote their initiatives. 
The Local Empowerment of Actors for Development (LEAD) project, supported by the European Union and implemented jointly by FAO and the United Nations Development Programme, is strengthening farmers’ groups, and giving them the effective social media tools and skills to reach out from rural Armenia to the world to promote their local products. 

Brucellosis is a disease that primarily affects ruminants in many countries around the world. Due to its zoonotic nature – being transmissible from animals to humans – it often affects farm workers and rural populations. To further prevent brucellosis in Central Asia and the Caucasus, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has organized a three-day workshop, starting today, to assess countries’ status in the progressive control of brucellosis. The event brings together representatives from public health and veterinary authorities from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 

Georgian viticulturalists can now gain in-depth knowledge on winter and green pruning in vineyards by accessing online technical video courses. The video courses by Julio Prieto Diaz, FAO’s International Integrated Vineyard Management Expert, were dubbed in Georgian and are available on the web. The online learning platform was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) support under the IV phase of the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD IV) funded by the European Union and Sweden.  

From September to December 2024, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the Centre for Sociological Research “Zerkalo”, carried out a large-scale assessment in rural areas of Tajikistan to understand smallholder farmers’ interactions with information and communication technologies (ICT), including their awareness, attitudes, the use in farming, barriers to access, and perceptions of the benefits of the technologies.

The second ministerial meeting was held on 18 January in Berlin, Germany on the sidelines of the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture 2025. Speakers included Cem Özdemir, German Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, Ludmila Catlabuga, Moldovan Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, as well as Raimund Jehle, FAO Regional Programme Leader and Representative in the Republic of Moldova.

The Investment Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), has launched Digital Technologies for Agriculture in Türkiye showcasing how AgTech solutions – from smart irrigation to traceability and e-commerce – are poised to enhance productivity and sustainability in Türkiye. The publication identifies the most promising AgTech solutions and assesses their current and potential uptake, along with barriers to adoption, and the supporting ecosystem. 

The One Health approach emphasizes the interconnected health of humans, animals, and ecosystems. By fostering collaboration across sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and environmental management, One Health aims to tackle complex global health challenges, such as emerging diseases, through integrated solutions. In a bid to enhance national capacities and bridge gaps between sectors, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), alongside the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), known as the Quadripartite, launched a Russian-language version of its One Health course.