News archive 2009

An FAO training manual is now available online that will assist the organisers of farmer’s associations in developing countries sharpen their business skills.

Europe remains firmly committed to helping poor countries boost agricultural production, FAO said today, welcoming a historic €106 million ($144 million) donation from the European Union in support of farmers hardest hit by the global food crisis.

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf, met in Rome to discuss the role of agricultural development in reducing world hunger and poverty. They also addressed the longer-term challenges to agriculture, including the impact of the global economic crisis on poor countries.

International experts on Foot-and-Mouth disease (FMD) have agreed on a plan to control the infection in Western Eurasia and stop it spreading west to Europe and North Africa. The move follows a serious epidemic of the disease in several Middle Eastern countries.

A newly-developed set of Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) is designed to ensure that the livelihoods of vulnerable livestock keepers are protected in future crises.

Large amounts of fishing gear lost at sea or abandoned by fishers are hurting the marine environment, impacting fish stocks through "ghost fishing" and posing a hazard to ships, according to a new report jointly produced FAO and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

After the detection of the A/H1N1 virus in pigs in Canada transmitted by a human, FAO has again urged national authorities and farmers to carefully monitor pigs and investigate any possible occurrences of Influenza-like symptoms in domestic animals.

Experts from FAO and the 30-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) meet to map out a long-term investment strategy to avert the menace of unprecedented levels of hunger.

FAO, OIE, WHO and WTO stated today that pork products handled in accordance with hygienic practices are not a source of infection.There is currently no justification for the imposition of trade measures on the importation of pigs or their products.

With WHO raising its pandemic alert level from 4 to 5, countries worldwide are being urged to take adequate precautionary measures against the newly found A/H1N1 virus, and to be prepared for the eventual case of a pandemic.