Eliminating hunger and the transformation of agrifood systems into sustainable systems are ambitious goals for which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is working towards every day. Yet, the Organization is lucky to rely on its partners’ resources, too, including academia, research institutions, and universities.

At the World Food Forum week, FAO events in the region focused on the potential of youth, and greening of agrifood systems through digitalization, and innovation.

Affordable technologies and efficient techniques transform rural communities.

The fifteenth of October is the International Day of Rural Women. This is a day to recognize that women’s empowerment and gender equality can lead to better lives, better production, and a better environment for all.

Today's global crises of the ongoing pandemic, conflicts, climate change, inflation and international tensions all have a serious impact on food security. More than 800 million people suffer from hunger worldwide, and the number is rising sharply, so there is a greater need than ever for governments, private sector, and the civil society to take action to alleviate hunger collaborate, as well as for raising the awareness of the public. 

In the last decade, rural communities in Europe and Central Asia have been increasingly exposed to multiple risks, increasing their vulnerability to poverty and other shocks. Recognizing the importance of social protection systems in addressing these challenges, FAO released a regional report that analyzes the specific risks and vulnerabilities faced by rural populations.

On 5–6 October the regional conference on food loss and waste in Europe and Central Asia “Enabling the change” took place to explore and discuss strategies, tools, and practical interventions to reduce food loss and waste and to identify the essential elements of environments conducive to the transition to sustainable food value chains. 

In 1989, a disease outbreak left cocoa plants and production in Brazil’s eastern state, Bahia, fully devastated. The land became abandoned until a group of rural farmers, who used to work on those fields, saw the untapped potential and rehabilitated it. 

Cotton production plays an important role in the economies of the Republic of Türkiye and many Central Asian countries, including Turkmenistan. Celebrated on World Cotton Day (7 October), cotton provides the basic input for the textile industry, contributing to export revenues of those countries and the livelihoods of thousands of farmers and workers engaged in the cotton value chain.

Earlier this summer, renowned Georgian chef Guram Baghdoshvili prepared khinkali – a traditional Georgian meat-filled dumpling – on an Instagram live hosted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and FAO.