With less than seven years left until the deadline, Europe and Central Asia are making progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 of Zero Hunger, including tackling food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, despite serious challenges experienced in the past few years. Even though the average cost of a healthy diet has increased in the region, the number of people who cannot afford a healthy diet has declined in 2022.

Scientists boost the glucose control of patients with type 1 diabetes by implanting encapsulated stem cell-derived cells. The procedure will minimize insulin intake and benefit the health of many patients. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic disease that stops the pancreas from creating insulin. Patients with this condition would need a regular dose of insulin to prevent other health complications. A potential alternative to insulin is β cell replacement, which was used by scientists in this first-in-human trial of T1D patients

A study published in New Phytologist shows that the knockout of sugar transporter OsSTP15 promotes tillering by increasing the sugar content in the shoot base of rice. This is highly beneficial for farmers in improving their yield. Sugar transporter proteins (STPs) play a vital role in sugar transport, which may also contribute to the environmental stress responses in plants.

Bioscientists from Joint BioEnergy Institute developed strains of sorghum that can grow tall, strong, and healthy with very little water. This highly benefits farmers in producing large quantities of crops with minimal costs. According to the researchers, sorghum does not have the best ability to regenerate in the plant tissue culture. Genes from wheat have been found to allow regeneration in wheat.

As China granted approvals for several varieties of GM maize and soybean, market experts expect a boost in yields, to impact the food market since both are staples and widely used as sources of edible oils and animal feed. The approvals include 37 GM maize and 14 GM soybean varieties in October. According to Kaiyuan Securities, GM maize and soybeans are projected to build a new market share of 7 billion yuan (US$988.4 million) within eight years.

In sub-Saharan Africa, most food is produced by smallholder farmers far from urban consumers. They participate in weak and fragmented market chains, where farmers don’t have enough information to secure a fair price from traders or make the best use of their resources to meet consumer demand. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as mobile apps, interactive voice response (IVR) systems or satellite images can directly address the information gap and transform agricultural markets,

From addressing Heads of State and Government at the World Climate Action Summit to launching a new FAO report and signing three different new memorandums of understanding, QU Dongyu's resounding message echoed through various events, underlining the interwoven challenges of food security and climate change. His leadership unfolded through participation in diverse forums, each emphasizing a unique facet of the urgent agenda.

“FAO works for the vulnerable people,” the Director-General said in his opening remarks, adding that the Organization “has a comparative advantage” in areas ranging from its core mandates, such as food and nutrition security and catalyzing agricultural productivity, to increasingly complex ones, such as fostering environmental sustainability, mitigating and adapting to climate change and building resilience among vulnerable people rocked by conflicts.

The European Scrutiny Committee of the United Kingdom House of Commons has called for the Government to provide more information on recent EU proposals on gene-edited crops. In July, the European Commission proposed establishing new regulations for plants that are developed through new genomic techniques (NGTs) such as gene editing. Under the EU Proposal, plants with genetic material from the same plant will be subject to simpler and less onerous regulations than was previously the case

Bacterial blight (BB) and bacterial leaf streak (BLS) are two of the most devastating diseases of rice worldwide. These diseases can cause significant yield losses and make it difficult for farmers to grow rice. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and partners reported a strategy to protect rice from BB and BLS. Their findings are published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal.