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Posts Tagged ‘FAO’
Agenda: Invasive species workshop-Tagaytay, Philippines, August 13-15, 2014
Posted in Emerging/invasive pests, Food Security, Meetings, tagged alien species, Clemson University, FAO, Government of the Philippines, IAPPS, IPM CRSP-IL, Unniversity of the Philippines, USAID on July 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
FAO and Thomson Reuters Foundation to launch online food security information service
Posted in Food Security, tagged FAO, hunger, Thomson Reuters Foundation, UK on July 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »
FAO
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/238490/icode/
Photo: ©FAO/©FAO/Giuseppe Carotenuto
FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF) Editor-in-Chief Belinda Goldsmith.
9 July 2014, Rome – The Thomson Reuters Foundation, the corporate charity of the world’s biggest news and information providers, is teaming up with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to improve global information and awareness on hunger and food-related issues including food production, food security, food waste, agriculture, land use, and malnutrition.
An agreement signed today by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and the Thomson Reuters Foundation Editor-in-Chief Belinda Goldsmith outlines a number of joint activities to be undertaken by the Organization and the Foundation’s global team of journalists covering humanitarian issues, women’s rights, human trafficking, the human impact of climate change and corruption.
Speaking at the signing event, Graziano da Silva said: “This is a strategic alliance with an institution that has a longstanding commitment to free independent journalism, to human rights, to women’s empowerment, and to the rule of law.”
“We cover the world’s under reported stories,” said Monique Villa, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, “this new partnership is perfectly in line with our core values, and I am extremely happy and confident we will deliver the necessary impact, boosting awareness and triggering change”.
A new online platform on hunger and nutrition
The agreement foresees the creation of a new section on trust.org, the Thomson Reuters Foundation portal, entirely dedicated to delivering news content on hunger and food issues to be launched next fall. Stories will be produced and sourced by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and made available for free usage worldwide in order to spread information on food security as widely as possible.
Topics to be covered will include food production, food security and safety, food waste, agriculture and land use, under nutrition and malnutrition, and food affordability among others.
Media’s critical role in transforming lives
Under the shared view that trusted news and information is a key tool in the fight for human rights and specifically against hunger, the partnership aims to highlight the importance of providing accurate, updated and helpful information about hunger, nutrition and food production challenges.
“I am fully convinced that the media play a critical role in every society, not only informing and raising people’s awareness, but also being able to transform their lives,” Graziano da Silva said.
This potential is “far more significant when it can benefit and change the lives of people who suffer from chronic hunger and improve their food security,” he added.
The Director-General also underlined the importance of considering nutrition a public issue and a main element of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
“Hunger and food security-related issues are under reported,” said Goldsmith. “With population growth and increased demand for food, food security is such a critical issue that we cover.”
Goldsmith stressed that this new partnership is an opportunity to make the public aware, which she said was the first step to taking the problem seriously and making changes that can impact lives.
“Ending hunger is a difficult and complex task, but with the invaluable contribution of partners like the Thomson Reuters Foundation to our work, we can definitely meet the challenge,” Graziano da Silva said.
The United Kingdom’s commitment to tackle malnutrition
The United Kingdom Permanent Representative to FAO, Ambassador Neil Briscoe, said: “The story needs to be heard loudly. In a world of competing priorities, it is easy for some of these longer-term issues to get drowned out.”
“Partnerships like today’s can help make the story long-lasting and underscore that hunger is not going away, and unless we give it the urgency that it deserves we will fail.”
He referred to the UK’s strong commitment to tackle malnutrition and food insecurity as part of a “moral imperative to help those who don’t have enough food to reach their physical and cognitive potential.”
Briscoe reiterated that this can only be done as a multi-stake holder effort. “We can only deliver if we involve governments, UN organizations, the private sector and civil society, often the best source of information on the ground,” he said.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the corporate charity of Thomson Reuters, the global news and information provider, and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
Jordan: Over 2,500 farmers benefited from field schools
Posted in Crop protection, Exports, Food Security, Pesticides, Technology transfer, tagged cucumbers, exportation, FAO, Farmers' Field Schools, NCARE, tomatoes on May 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »
May 05 2014
By Khetam Malkawi
AMMAN — Farmers’ education and empowerment should be a sustainable process in Jordan, especially since agriculture is one of the sectors in the Kingdom that employs guest workers, officials said on Monday.
In a country with a growing population that has almost reached 10 million, there has to be continuous education for agricultural workers, Agriculture Ministry Secretary General Radi Tarawneh said at a workshop organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Tarawneh added that the sector is very important to the country’s economy, but there are several challenges that should be overcome.
These challenges, he noted, include contradictory pieces of legislation and urban encroachment on agricultural land.
However, local crops and agricultural products are tested and free of pesticides, the official stressed.
“There were news reports claiming the opposite, while others claimed that wastewater treated at the Khirbet Al Samra plant is used to irrigate crops for human consumption… this is false news,” Tarawneh said.
During the workshop, the FAO announced the conclusion of its 10-year Regional Integrated Pest Management (IPM) project, which was launched in 2004 and also implemented in Jordan.
Andrea Berloffa, emergency coordinator and liaison officer at FAO Jordan, said the project was aimed at improving the food and nutrition security of rural populations through development and implementation of sustainable agriculture practices in six countries, including Jordan, and was expanded in 2010 to include another four countries in the region.
According to Berloffa, education and empowerment of farmers was a “key activity of the IPM programme” that is based on the utilisation of farmer field schools (FFS).
He cited figures indicating that the project established more than 150 FFS in Jordan and over 2,500 farmers — 20 per cent of whom were women — benefited from these schools.
Berloffa explained that the FFS gives farmers the opportunity to learn how to deal with problems they face on their farms, exchange experience and learn how to improve the quality of their crops.
One achievement of the projects, according to the FAO official, is the institutionalising of the FFS approach by the National Centre for Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE).
“Since 2008, the FFS approach has been incorporated and budgeted into the annual plans of the NCARE… initiating for the first time the participatory extension unit.”
Due to its impact on the country’s agricultural sector, the project received the International IPM Award of Recognition in 2012 from the US, according to National IPM and FFS Project Coordinator Ashraf Hawamdeh.
Hawamdeh noted that the project also had a direct impact on farmers’ livelihoods and some of the FFS beneficiaries succeeded in exporting more than 800 tonnes of tomatoes and 200 tonnes of cucumbers in 2009.
© Jordan Times 2014
© Copyright Zawya. All Rights Reserved.
International Plant Protection Convention website
Posted in Emerging/invasive pests, legislation, Quarantine, tagged FAO, guidelines, IRSS survey, Madrid System, pest reports, post entry quarantine facility, regulated pests, spread of pests on May 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »
ABOUT US
The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) is an international agreement on plant health to which 181 signatories currently adhere. It aims to protect cultivated and wild plants by preventing the introduction and spread of pests. The Secretariat of the IPPC is provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. MEDIA KIT
CORE ACTIVITIES
Governance
Commission (CPM)
Standard setting
Adopted Standards
Information exchange
Capacity development
Dispute settlement
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COUNTRY INFO
Complete List of Countries
List of Contact Points
Pest Reports
Legislation
List of regulated pest
IRSS HELPDESK
Where can I find the report of the IRSS Survey: Review of the implementation of Guidelines on lists of regulated pests (ISPM19:2003) and Pest reporting (ISPM17:2002)?
Where can I find the latest IRSS Survey: Review of the implementation of Guidelines on lists of regulated pests (ISPM19:2003) and Pest reporting (ISPM17:2002)?
Do you have a simple floor plan for a post entry quarantine facility? If you can share it, please email us at ippc@fao.org with subject line: PEQ facility plan.
What happens if my country is not a member of the Madrid System for the international registration of marks ?
For those Contracting Parties who have submitted an IRSS questionnaire; how would you define the process of retrieving information and what was your NPPOs experience in conducting this activity?
Collaboration key to contain Panama Disease comeback
Posted in Emerging/invasive pests, Fungi, tagged bananas, Cavendish, FAO, Fusarium, TR4 on April 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Photo: http://www.shutterstock.com
April 21st, 2014
Major banana-producing regions went on alert last week , heeding a warning from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the frightening return of Panama Disease.
The FAO asked traders and producers to step up their monitoring and prevention efforts for Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, the soil-borne fungus that propagates Panama Disease and brought the commercial industry to its knees in the 1950s.
Although planted for its resistance, the leading Cavendish variety has fallen prey to a recent Fusarium mutation, dubbed Tropical Race 4 (TR4). This evolved strain of Panama Disease has threatened Asian producers since the 1990s.
Fear now grows that this killer fungus could spread further into Asia, Africa and Latin America, following new detections in Mozambique and Jordan.
Gianluca Gondolini, secretariat of the World Banana Forum, said Latin American in particular will need to implement prevention efforts to protect the livelihood of its banana-producing nations.
“Latin America has three of the world’s biggest exporters, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Guatemala. That poses a threat from a market perspective and has companies and governments on alert because it relates to revenue as well as the livelihood of the people working with banana plantations,” Gondolini told http://www.freshfruitportal.com.
“It could create a similar portrait to what happened in Panama 50 years ago when the entire industry was devastated by Fusarium and all the Gros Michel was replaced with Cavendish.”
Although the consequences of Fusarium propagation are hard to predict, Gondolini pointed to historical examples of Panama Disease to demonstrate what could lie ahead.
“We can talk about what has happened in the past and analyze what has been the impact of Fusarium in previous varieties like Gros Michel, which created a sort of crossroad between the industry entirely failing or replacing it with another variety, which was the case in the 60s,” he said.
“There are places in Asia that have been affected for 20 years by TR4 and the consequence is quite impressive for them because the disease is expanding every year. It is estimated in the Philippines, the fourth largest exporter in the world, that the track is increasing by 7% a year.”
TR4 has already been detected in three of the top 10 banana-producing nations: China, the Philippines and Indonesia. In addition to the recent cases in Mozambique and Jordan, TR4 has also attacked plantations in Australia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Click here for a map of where Panama Disease Race 1 and Race 4 are present. http://panamadisease.org/map/map
“The point is that the industry is not able to manage Fusarium in agronomic terms. Once it gets in the soil of the plant, it is impossible. There are no options unless you abandon the plantation for years,” he said.
“To say that it won’t spread, that’s an issue. It’s a matter of time. It’s expanding because of the different nature of the disease. It’s through movement of equipment and people. There is always potential risk.”
In response, the World Banana Forum has created a task force that brings together banana companies, NGOs, government bodies and academics to collaborate on an action plan. TR4 is also on the agenda for upcoming meetings in Kenya, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago, the FAO reported.
“We need immediate action and long-term action. The immediate action is raising awareness, defining informational materials, defining groups. We also need capacity building, training materials, quarantines,” Gondolini said.
“In the long term, the issue relates to resistant varieties, which could be the best solution. We also need an early warning system to detect the disease and prevent spread to other areas.”
Gondolini emphasized the social and economic importance of bananas on a global level.
FAOSTAT lists bananas as the eighth most important food crop in the world and the fourth most important food crop among the world’s least-developed countries.
Bananas not only rank as the fruit of choice for U.S. shoppers, but it is also a dietary staple for many living in West Africa, Central America and Asia.
“It is a global crop so it has an impact on the livelihood of people in producing countries and actors involved along the supply chain,” Gondolini said.
“This is a risk for the sector but also an opportunity to collaborate, so we should really leverage the support of everyone involved in the banana sector.”
FAO and National Geographic collaborate on “Future of Food series
Posted in Food Security, tagged FAO, food security, National Geographic on April 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Check out the website http://food.nationalgeographic.com/
National Geographic Society and FAO are teaming up to raise public awareness of food and agriculture topics and the question of how to feed 9 billion people by 2050. The FAO and National Geographic Society are collaborating on an 8-month “Future of Food” series that will run in National Geographic magazine and online at http://food.nationalgeographic.com/
Some of the themes to be explored in the series are food and agricultural statistics and trends, feeding megacities in a world of changing demographics, reducing food loss and waste, the role of animal and insect protein in diets, and global forestry issues.
The official launch of our collaboration will be marked by a three-day event taking place on May 2-4, 2014 at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, DC.
The launch will begin with an expert panel discussion on May 2nd from 2-4:30pm. The panel will address the issue of food security and sustainability. The speakers will be author Jonathan Foley, former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, chef José Andrés, photojournalist Robin Hammond, and others.
We would be pleased if you could join us. Please see the attached “Save the Date” document for details.
For more information and to request your free tickets, please RSVP at natgeoevents@ngs.org
Regards,
Gabriel T. Laizer, Jr
Strategic Partnerships and Outreach Coordinator
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
2121 K Street N.W., |Suite 800-B| Washington, DC 20037
Phone: (202) 653-2454| Fax: (202) 653-5760
Website: http://www.fao.org/north-america
Blog: http://www.faowashington.org/
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