News

Brazzaville, Republic of Congo - The Secretary-General of the newly-formed Network of Central African Parliamentary Alliances on Food and Nutrition Security (RAPAC-SAN) undertook a first mission to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, supported by the National Assembly of Gabon, the FAO sub-regional office for Central Africa and the FAO office in the Congo. RAPAC-SAN was created during the Forum of Parliamentarians of Central Africa on Food and Nutrition Security, which was held in Brazzaville from November 19-21, and presided over by His Excellency Denis Sassou-N’Guesso, President of the Republic of the Congo. Following the recommendations of the Brazzaville Forum, the Secretary-General of...

The Africa Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF)

Rome - A strategic dialogue between France and FAO will take place from the 5th to6th of February 2020. The high-level meeting will take place at FAO’s headquarters in Rome, and will focus on the collaboration between FAO and, for France: the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Agriculture and Food (MAA), as well as the French research institutions INRAE, CIRAD, AGREENIUM and IRD.  The two days of dialogue - one dedicated to the research institutes and the second to the...

Rome - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Roma Tre University showcased findings from a joint study on producer organizations, highlighting strategies that can be used to ensure the inclusion of poor family farmers in cooperatives and producer organizations (POs). The study, which ran from 2018-2019, contributes both to FAO Strategic Objective 3 – Reduce rural poverty, and Pillar 4 of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming, Strengthen family farmers’ organizations and capacities to generate knowledge, represent farmers and provide inclusive services in the urban-rural continuum. Masters students from Roma Tre undertook fieldwork...

Rome - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met with Martin Kropff, Director-General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). The two were also joined by Robert Bertram, Chief Scientist of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). During the meeting they highlighted the urgent need to develop new evidence based solutions and toolkits to tackle the most destructive pests in agriculture, specifically Fall Armyworm (FAW). In this context, QU referred to the launch of the FAO’s Global Action for FAW Control in December 2019 and the establishment of the Steering Committee as a major step forward in this...

A pilot project implemented by Kyoto University (KU) in 2019, aimed at raising awareness on food waste in canteens on the campus, and enhancing the knowledge and engagement of students in reducing food loss and waste, determined that approximately 20 per cent of food is wasted in canteens on campus. Research findings under the pilot highlighted that the most wasted foods on the campus include side vegetables, rice and noodles, and parts of fish.

FAO will bolster the scale and scope of its geospatial monitoring toolkit thanks to collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (

FAO will attend the fourth Annual Strategic Consultation with the Government of Japan on Tuesday 21 January 2020, in Tokyo, Japan. The objective is to review the progress of their partnership and discuss common priorities and new humanitarian and development projects for the year ahead.

Rome - Over the past months, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations continued to support the objectives of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming (UNDFF), signing three new letters of agreement (LoA) with the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Development in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). These new agreements will support knowledge exchange and capacity development activities, including two studies on family farming.  More than 90 percent of the world’s 600 million farms are run by an individual or a family and rely primarily...