FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today participated in the chairpersonship handover ceremony of the G77 & China - Rome Chapter and praised the Group’s important contribution to FAO’s work and development. Qu recognized the efforts and leadership of the outgoing chairperson Esti Andayani, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Indonesia to FAO, IFAD, WFP and UNIDROIT, and welcomed the incoming one, Carlos Bernardo Cherniak, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Argentina to FAO, IFAD and WFP.

Scientists from the Earlham Institute created a new automated system using liquid handling robots to identify the genetic basis of growth inhibition of plant pathogens to prevent the rapid spread of crop diseases.The scientists screened 2,880 species of Pseudomonas isolated from a potato field in just 11 hours to identify and compare the pathogen growth inhibition with a biosynthetic gene cluster. They were able to identify the genes responsible for pathogen growth inhibition in just two weeks.

Pakistan is one of the top adopters of biotech crops in the Asia-Pacific, according to ISAAA SEAsiaCenter Director Dr. Rhodora Romero-Aldemita, who was one of the speakers in the ISAAA Brief 55 Launch and Seminar on Science Communication and Public Engagement held physically and virtually at COMSTECH, Islamabad, Pakistan on March 9, 2021.

A group of researchers from the University of Queensland used the remaining 100 trees of Buburin Nut (Macadamia jansenii) as the perfect model for sequencing and assembling all future plant genomes to learn how rare plant species could survive extinction and its associated genetic bottleneck. The researchers used long-read technologies, short-read technologies, and the combination of the two to analyze all the 14 assembled chromosomes to get the highest quality of genome sequences.

Dr. Jennifer Thomson, Emeritus Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa has written a new book, GM Crops and the Global Divide, which explores global attitudes to GM crops and unravels the reasons behind negative sentiments. Genetically modified (GM) crops have been commercially grown since 1996.

The previous Five-Year Plan, which ended in 2020, was focused on eradicating extreme poverty in the country. With the new Plan, the priority has shifted from rural work to modernization of the rural economy, particularly in building infrastructure for information technology, promoting agricultural technologies, and building modern breeding systems. Their focus on food security has been strengthened as well.

A comprehensive transformation of the global agri-food system can significantly contribute to attaining worldwide targets including ending hunger by 2030, said Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Director-General QU Dongyu during a virtual keynote lecture at Italy's Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.

The socio-economic impacts of biotech crops have been documented in the last 23 years (1996-2018) showing that biotech crops have contributed to increasing productivity for food, feed, and fiber; supporting self-sufficiency on a nation's arable land; conserving biodiversity; mitigating climate change challenges; and improving economic, health, and social status of adopters.

A study led by Melbourne University has established how plants use their metabolism to tell time and know when to grow. This discovery could help in growing crops in different environments, including different seasons, latitudes, or even in artificial environments and vertical gardens. The study led by Dr. Mike Haydon, from the School of BioSciences, details how plants use their metabolism to sense time at dusk and help conserve energy produced from sunlight during the day. Dr. Haydon said that while plants do not sleep as humans do, their metabolism adjusts during the night to conserve energy for the following day for photosynthesis.

International Women's Day is a global day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, while also making a call to action for strengthening gender equality and accelerating women’s empowerment. The theme this year is Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world. It celebrates the remarkable efforts by women and girls around the globe to shape a more equitable future and the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.