The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) announced a virtual public consultation to collect insights on how the UN agencies can collaborate in key areas of food systems transformation and hunger alleviation in the next years. Results of the consultations will be incorporated in the FAO's Strategic Framework 2022-2031 and WFP's Strategic Plan 2022-2026.

The European Commission has published a study on new genomic techniques (NGTs) that shows the techniques have the potential to contribute to a more sustainable food system as part of the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy. The study also finds that the current GMO legislation adopted in 2001, is not fit for purpose for these innovative technologies. The Commission will now start a wide and open consultation process to discuss the design of a new legal framework for these biotechnologies.

Dr. Desiree M. Hautea of the Institute of Plant Breeding of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) was recognized this year by the Asian Scientist Magazine for her contributions in the research and development towards adoption of the Bt eggplant in the Philippines. Dr. Hautea is the project leader of the Bt Eggplant Project, an initiative of UPLB which started in the early 2000s that aimed to develop and commercialize transgenic eggplant varieties that are resistant to the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB) in the Philippines.

“If managed and governed differently, food systems could be a lever of global change, at the vanguard of sustainable living for all, leading other sectors with solutions and inspiration.” CGIAR, the largest publicly-funded agricultural research partnership in the world, has challenged governments and donors to double funding to end hunger and halt climate change by 2030.

Working with private seed companies, ICRISAT is helping integrate more women and youth into seed production enterprises in Tanzania. Recently we supported the efforts of the seed company Mbozi Highlands (MHEG), to enhance the production, promotion, marketing and adoption of new high-yielding varieties of groundnut and sorghum in the country. This was by designing and developing training manuals to train farmers, identifying and contracting 92 new seed producer groups (women and youth);

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is becoming an increasing threat to global health, food safety and security, potentially also leading to substantial socio-economic damage, and to turn this around, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today called for coherent, swift and decisive action.

Dr Anxious Masuka, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, during a recent visit to the ICRISAT Matopos Research Center, called for continued close collaboration between the Government of Zimbabwe and ICRISAT to ensure the benefits of research quickly reach poorly-resourced communal farmers and help Zimbabwe achieve a middle income economy by 2030.

The world's smallholder farmers produce around a third of the world's food, according to detailed new research by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Five of every six farms in the world consist of less than two hectares, operate only around 12 percent of all agricultural land, and produce roughly 35 percent of the world's food, according to a study published in World Development.

Addressing the 166^th Session of the FAO Council today, Director-General QU Dongyu highlighted the ways the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been providing constant support to Members, including to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the decisions, activities and results shared with Council today are "not an isolated exercise, but part of an interlinked chain of progress," he said.

Scientists from the Imperial College of London used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to develop gene-edited mosquitoes that could possibly reduce their ability to spread Malaria. Though only a preliminary study has been done, the breakthrough could be used for a gene drive that can provide a new way to reduce illnesses and deaths caused by Malaria. The researchers used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to insert a gene that encodes an antimalarial protein among genes that are turned on after the mosquito (Anopheles gambiae) consumes a blood meal.