People in industrialized regions like the United States of America or Europe are generally urged to eat less meat and animal-source foods as part of a healthier and lower-emissions diet. But such recommendations are not universal solutions in low- or middle-income countries, where livestock are critical to incomes and diets, argue scientists in recently published research in Environmental Research Letters.

A new disease-resistant sorghum hybrid with 23-34% higher yield, best suited for brewing, food and forage and adaptable to diverse agro-ecologies in Zimbabwe and southern Africa was developed in partnership with Seed Co, a private seed company. The development and use of the new hybrid is a forerunner of the ICRISAT-led Sorghum and Pearl Millet Hybrid Parents Research Consortium that fosters public-private partnerships.

The COVID-19 pandemic is more than a health crisis. Over the last six months, we have witnessed its extreme socio-economic consequences, including grave threats to food security and nutrition. As the pandemic continues to take its toll and make an indelible mark on agri-food systems, organizations like the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a member of CGIAR, are aligning their efforts to ensure a relevant, timely, and well-coordinated response to safeguard the health and livelihoods of the poorest and most vulnerable.

FAO harnesses the power of digital technologies to pilot, accelerate and scale innovative ideas with high potential for impact in food and agriculture, transforming digital solutions and services into global public goods. It aims to explore the responsible application and adoption of existing and frontier technologies, design and scale new services, tools and approaches to empower rural households and inspire youth entrepreneurship in food and agriculture.

We are well into the 21st century and even the most fundamental aspects of protein biophysics continue to perplex us. For example, counter to any expectation, proteins are excellent conductors (1); globular proteins, the once hallowed paradigm of structural biology, are now believed to sample their unfolded ensemble multiple times over their lifetime due to their unexpectedly small folding equilibrium constants

2020 will go down in history as a uniquely challenging year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), it will also be remembered as a year in which the Organization turned challenges into opportunities and took steady steps to become more transparent, inclusive and digital. “The world has continued to change rapidly and much has happened inside FAO.

 During the wrap-up workshop of the International Rice Research Institute’s (IRRI) consultancy to the Vietnam Sustainable Agriculture Transformation (VnSAT) Project, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) acknowledged the contribution of the institute in promoting best practices for better quality rice in a sustainable framework. Moreover, the adoption of best practices significantly increased the annual rice production of Vietnam and the incomes of Vietnamese farmers in the Mekong River Delta.

Two hundred individuals and ten teams from across all streams and offices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) were recognized today for "remarkable performance under extraordinary circumstances in an exceptional year" at the FAO Employee Recognition Awards event - held this year online.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has welcomed the recent decision by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council to approve 13 FAO-led projects in 16 countries, totaling some $78.5 million dollars. The decision came during the 59th GEF Council Meeting and will build upon its June 2020 decision to approve $176 million for FAO-led projects.

A research team at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Science led by Prof. WU Yuejin has developed a rice variety using ion beam breeding technology. Prof. Wu's team applied ion beam mutagenesis in crop breeding to promote the development of molecular breeding. The rice variety is called Zhongkejing No. 5. "Zhongke" means the Chinese Academy of Science in Chinese, and it was developed for the advantageous production areas of glutinous rice in Anhui province.