Global hunger levels have risen for the first time in more than a decade, now affecting 11 percent of the world’s population, as conflict, climate change and economic woes bite, UN agencies said.
What was the climate of the Europe's Low Countries -- modern-day Belgium, northern France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands -- during the 15th century? That's what historian Chantal Camenisch was trying to find out when she happened upon evidence of cruel cold spell.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said that it is concerned about the food security of families affected by floods in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), especially with winter approaching, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
The international community must take urgent action to help build resilience, food security, and restore livelihoods in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which are impacted by drought and other extreme-weather effects of the El Niño phenomenon, senior United Nations officials today said.
Lake Kariba on the Zambezi river border between Zimbabwe and Zambia used to be dotted with hundreds of commercial fishing rigs, while local fishermen in small makeshift boats would catch enough bream for their livelihood.
Nearly 1 million children need treatment for severe malnutrition in eastern and southern Africa due to a drought that is putting millions more at risk of hunger, water shortages and disease, the UN children's agency said yesterday.
UN, 22 October 2014 – The growing menace of desertification poses a distinct threat to the world’s agriculture and eco-systems, the United Nations agriculture agency warned today, as it announced a new initiative aimed at curbing the spread of land degradation and building resilience to climate change.
The programme, named Action Against Desertification and launched by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in partnership with the European Union and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP), will devote some €41million to bolstering sustainable land management across the world’s most vulnerable areas in an effort to fight hunger and poverty.
Proper agricultural policies and reforms, and impressive increases in
domestic food production helped China meet the first Millennium
Development Goal (MDG), the chief of the UN's food agency says.
"China
has already made outstanding progress to this goal, in part due to
policies that support targeted investments in agriculture, reforms in
the agricultural system, and impressive increases in domestic food
production," Jose Graziano da Silva, director general of the Rome-based
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told Xinhua in a recent
interview.
BANGKOK — The United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization [FAO] says the world needs to boost agriculture
production by 60 percent to meet its estimated food needs over the
coming decades. The FAO says declining amounts of arable land and fresh
water resources, however, create challenges.
The FAO says improving food security
levels by 2050 may require a second "Green Revolution" to boost
agricultural yields and feed the world’s expected nine billion people.
The so-called "Green Revolution" of the 1960s came with the introduction
of industrial farming practices and high-yielding plant varieties,
which helped farmers stay ahead of fast-growing populations.
6 March 2014 – Global food prices in February rose to their highest level since mid-2012 as a result of unfavourable weather and increased demand, the United Nations food agency today reported.
In a news release, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said its most recent Food Price Index, which measures the monthly change in international prices of a basket of 55 food commodities, including meat, dairy, sugar, and cereals, averaged 208.1 points. That is about 5.2 points, or 2.6 per cent, higher than the slightly revised index for January.
7 October 2013 –
Although global food prices have recently stabilized, they are expected
to remain volatile over the next few years, the head of the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today, as a ministerial meeting on global food prices kicked off in Rome.