Ecosystems and landscapes offer significant opportunities to reverse environmental degradation and enhance the sustainable intensification of production. Our research priorities for natural resources and ecosystem services are captured in the work of our Research Centers and Programs as they work to improve dietary diversity, improve nutritional content and safety of foods

The Government of Mozambique, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have announced a new project that will strengthen sustainable forest management and contribute to Mozambique achieving Sustainable Development Goal 15 on forests.

In an emotional ceremony held this past Wednesday at CIAT, Jeroen Cooreman, Belgian ambassador to Colombia, made the delivery of the civil decoration granted by royal order “in recognition of the services rendered.”

Mallikarjuna Swamy, head of the Healthier Rice Breeding Group at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), shares his thoughts on the role of science in solving malnutrition, particularly zinc deficiency.“More than two billion people in the world are malnourished and most of them live in rice-consuming Asian countries,” says Dr. Swamy. He adds, however, that huge opportunities exist to improve the nutritional content of rice varieties to solve the micronutrient-deficiency problem.

- Poor rains across East Africa have worsened hunger and left crops scorched, pastures dry and thousands of livestock dead - according to an alert released today by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).The most affected areas, which received less than half of their normal seasonal rainfall, are central and southern Somalia, southeastern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Kenya, northern Tanzania and northeastern and southwestern Uganda.
 

It is important to develop the capacities of Asian and African countries for effective knowledge dissemination and technology transfer, according to Peter Brothers, head of IRRI Education. To help achieve this, IRRI Education, the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of the Republic of Korea, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) facilitated a training workshop on technology transfer systems in Asia, 26 June-7 July, at the International Technology Cooperation Center, RDA Headquarters, Jeonju, Republic of Korea.

Graziano da Silva briefs UN Security Council on need to save lives by saving rural livelihoods in Yemen. The scale of the food crisis in conflict-ridden Yemen is staggering with 17 million people - two thirds of the population - severely food insecure and seven million of these on the verge of famine, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today in a briefing to the UN Security Council.

"Together with conducive and harmonized regulations, crop biotechnology innovations can help increase food production to address the needs of the growing global population, especially those in the developing countries like Uganda," said the Minister of State for Agriculture—Hon. Christopher Kibazanga. This was at the launch of the 2016 Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops report on July 6, 2017 at Hotel Africana, in Kampala Uganda.

Through combined high-resolution image-based phenotyping with functional mapping and genome prediction, a new research conducted at the Australia Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF) provides insights into the complex genetic architecture and molecular mechanisms underlying early shoot growth dynamics in rice.

On 1 July 2017, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus begins his 5-year term as WHO’s new Director-General. Dr Tedros previously served as Minister of Health and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ethiopia and as Board Chair of the Global Fund and Roll Back Malaria Partnership. Dr Tedros plans to focus on five main areas of work during his tenure.