A five-year cooperation agreement between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and CGIAR aims to accelerate and scale agricultural innovations and solutions for the sustainable and inclusive development of agrifood systems in Asia. The agreement was signed at the Asia and the Pacific Food Security Forum 2024, hosted by ADB. CGIAR, the world’s largest publicly-funded agricultural innovation network, will support ADB in identifying and developing future investment opportunities and preparing and implementing investment projects and knowledge programs

In a major development that will change the research and food security efforts of IITA–CGIAR in Zambia, the government has granted IITA full diplomatic status. This new status emphasizes the importance of IITA’s research to Zambia’s agricultural and economic transformation and the development of the Southern region. The announcement came on the eve of the launch of IITA’s Southern Africa Research and Administrative Hub (SARAH) and food system research and delivery facilities in the country’s capital, Lusaka.

Hunger levels in Africa have increased in the past two years, due to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing conflicts, the climate crisis and economic shocks, but the continent’s possibilities are vast and optimism about the opportunities that lie ahead is in order, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said today at the 33^rd Session of the FAO Regional Ministerial Conference for Africa (ARC33).

Scientists from Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) devised a new CRISPR tool called Cas13d-NCS, which allows CRISPR RNA molecules to move to the cytoplasm and make it highly effective for neutralizing RNA viruses. The findings of their study are reported in Cell Discovery. RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2 continue to become a global threat due to its increasing number of cases.

Despite being the world's largest producer of food staples like rice and vegetable oil, food security is a critical issue in Asia. World Scientific released a new book titled Food Security Issues in Asia edited by food security expert Dr. Paul Teng from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The book addresses the food security challenge by exploring the impact of COVID-19 on food security and future trends in production and consumption of key foods in Asia.

Australia's Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has issued license DIR 201 to The University of Adelaide, allowing the field trial of wheat and barley genetically modified (GM) for yield enhancement. The field trial will be conducted on one site in Light Regional Council in South Australia, with a maximum planting area of 2 hectares each year. The trial will run from May 2024 to January 2029. The purpose of the field trial is to assess the performance of GM wheat and barley under field conditions in Australia.

A team of scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), ETH Zurich, and Taiwan's National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) have successfully increased the Vitamin B1 content of rice grains, a significant achievement in the fight against vitamin B1 deficiency, which is associated with a rice-based diet. Rice is a staple food for half the world's population, particularly in the tropical countries of Asia, South America, and Africa. But rice grains are low in vitamin B1, and processing such as polishing reduces it even further, taking 90 percent with them.

Malawi is facing a severe drought crisis linked to the El Niño climate phenomenon. On March 23, President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of disaster in 23 of Malawi’s 28 districts in anticipation of a poor harvest and appealed for more than $200 million in humanitarian assistance. El Niño has brought about spells of dry weather across much of Southern Africa in recent months, leading to poor agronomic conditions in the current growing season and potentially severe impacts on harvests.

On 28 March 2024, stakeholders from seven countries across Asia and Africa attended a webinar exploring the transformative impact of digital innovations on agrifood systems. Hosted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the webinar titled Digital innovations to support equitable, sustainable, and resilient agrifood systems and last mile delivery showcased a variety of digital solutions aimed at fostering equity, sustainability and resilience within the agricultural sector.

A study published in Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology shows that suppressing the solanidine galactosyltransferase (sgt1) gene in potatoes resulted in low levels of α-solanine without any changes in α-chaconine levels. Potatoes naturally produce two major steroidal glycoalkaloids called α-solanine and α-chaconine, which may cause toxic symptoms in humans when consumed in large amounts.