The former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, has died at the age of 80 after a short illness, his family and foundation announced on Saturday. The Ghanaian was the seventh secretary general and served for two terms between 1997 and 2006. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his humanitarian work jointly with the UN as an organisation in 2001.

The heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) today pledged to increase support for regional efforts addressing the critical food and nutrition security situation in the Sahel. Close to 6 million people are estimated to be severely food insecure in the current lean season.

University of York scientists have identified a key gene that helps seeds decide whether to germinate. Scientists have known that the plant hormones abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberelins (GA) play an important role in seed germination. However, in this breakthrough research, they identified the MFT gene as the key component that integrates signals from ABA and GA.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) has concluded that raw and refined sugar from genetically engineered insect resistant sugarcane CTC175-A developed by the Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC) in Brazil are as safe as raw and refined sugar derived from conventional sugarcane varieties

"We need a bold move... to help farmers just as Nigeria has done," said Daniel Osei Ofosu, Ghana country coordinator of the Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS) of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Fall Armyworm is likely to spread from India to other countries in South East Asia and South China, putting food security and farmer livelihoods at risk. This news is according to the warning of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The pest was first reported in Asia affecting crops in India. The insect has the ability to fly over long distances (100 km per night) and destroy crops such as maize, rice, vegetables, groundnuts, and cotton.

Rice is life in Myanmar, where 70% of its rural population engages in rice farming for their livelihood. Building on this strength, the government is set to regain its past position as a major global rice exporter. To achieve this goal, scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and farmers in the Ayeyarwady Delta have been working together since 2013 to improve the country’s rice production by introducing an array of IRRI-recommended best management practices.

The Polish Ministry of Agriculture released a new draft labeling voluntary standards for food products free from genetic engineering derived from livestock not fed with GE feeds and/or products. This was reported in the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service-Global Agricultural Information Network Report. The draft standard states that a "non-GMO" label would be placed on the packaging of such products.

Since the approval of Bt eggplant for "limited cultivation" in Bangladesh in 2013, ~17% of the total brinjal farmers in the country are already benefiting from the technology. Scientists concisely report the history, present status, and future direction of the Bt eggplant project in Bangladesh in a perspective article in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.

The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Fish and Wildlife Service announces the full withdrawal of the July 2014 memorandum stating that certain agricultural practices, particularly the use of genetically engineered (GE) seeds and neonicotinoid pesticides across the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) would be phased out in refuges. The announcement of withdrawal, thus reverses the decision to universally ban the GE crops on refuges.