Food and Agriculture Organization

ULAANBAATAR/ROME – Soil degradation is continuing to worsen in many parts of the world, while proven practices to protect and restore soils are still not being adopted at the pace and scale required, according to a major new global assessment launched today by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Hangzhou, China/Rome - The Asia-Pacific region must place science, technology and artificial intelligence at the centre of efforts to transform agrifood systems, while ensuring that innovation helps close – rather than widen – the digital, rural and gender divides, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu has said.

Ulaanbaatar/Rome - Restoring rangelands and desert landscapes is central to food security, livelihoods and resilient rural economies, FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol said on Monday at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Some 60 percent of the 1.66 billion hectares of land degraded by unsustainable land use and management are agricultural land, including cropland and pastureland.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – The UN today awarded three new World Restoration Flagships in Brazil, the Sahel region, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The initiatives are strengthening landscape productivity by restoring degraded ecosystems in regions facing drought, desertification and climate change.

The Central Organization for Standardization and Quality Control (COSQC), which hosts the Codex Contact Point for Iraq, organized a symposium in cooperation with Al-Sulaymaniyah Food & Dairy Production Co. Ltd. to celebrate World Food Safety Day 2026.

COTTON World cotton prices continued trending down in 1999. The Cotlook 'A' index, an indicator of world prices, plummeted to $1.09 per kilo in September 1999, about 30 percent lower than a year earlier. Greater production, weak demand and, in particular, the substantial decline in the price of man-made fibres, were responsible for the lower prices.

Kyoto, Japan/Rome – Agriculture must move beyond a primary focus on producing sufficient quantities of food and place greater emphasis on providing the diverse and nutritious foods needed for healthy diets, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said Monday, highlighting horticulture’s contribution to better nutrition, resilient livelihoods and more sustainable agrifood systems. "Success can no longer be measured simply by how much food we produce.

meet the chair_CCPFV-01.jpg Introducing four new committee Chairpersons, starting with CCPFV New work on a group standard for millets and on camel milk has seen the reactivation of the Codex Committee on Cereals, Pulses and Legumes (CCCPL) and the Codex Committee on Milk and Milk products (CCMMP) respectively. In addition, we have seen a change in the host country for both the Codex Committee on Processed Fruits and Vegetables (CCPFV) and the Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products (CCFFP).

At the 49th meeting of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC49) in Geneva, Switzerland, a side event was organized, titled “Showcasing efforts to ensure sustainable food safety leadership and advocacy”. The event was sponsored by the Government of Switzerland and chaired by former CAC Chairperson Awilo Ochieng Pernet.

Kyoto (Japon)/Rome – «L’agriculture doit s’éloigner d’un modèle axé en premier lieu sur la production de quantités suffisantes de nourriture pour faire une plus large place à la production d’aliments variés et nutritifs nécessaires à une alimentation saine», a déclaré ce lundi le Directeur général de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO), M.