With rapid economic growth and expanding urban populations in Viet Nam, demand for food has been increasing at a fast pace in recent years. Poultry is an important source of animal protein in the country. According to 2014 figures from the Hanoi Trade Department, approximately 4 650 000 kg of poultry meat is consumed monthly in Viet Nam’s capital Hanoi.

Since 2010, FAO has been the leading agency delivering technical assistance within Viet Nam’s National Target Programme on the New Rural Development (NTP-NRD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and 4 other UN agencies (UNESCO, UNIDO, IOM, and UNV). The project “UN Support to the National Target Programme on the New Rural Development”

The United Stated Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its food and feed safety assessment of the second generation of J.R. Simplot's Innate® potatoes. The FDA concluded that the Russet Burbank Generation 2 potatoes are not materially different in composition, safety, and other relevant parameters, from any other potato or potato-derived food or feed currently on the market.

Land plants get a large portion of their mineral nutrients through their relationship with soil fungi called arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis. Despite decades of research, many of the genes required to form this relationship remain elusive. A new study conducted by researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has uncovered genes that plants use to form symbiotic relationships with fungi.

Researchers at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission have updated a 2008 JRC study that analyzed the global pipeline of genetically modified (GM) crops that were expected in the market in 2015. The paper, published in Nature Biotechnology, describes GM crops in the pipeline from 2008 to 2014, and shows the global situation of GM crops in development, with the objective of describing the medium-term innovations in the food, feed, and industrial sectors.

FAO 15 January 2015, Berlin - Providing healthy diets for the world's growing urban population requires forging stronger links between rural producers and urban markets and building food systems that are more socially inclusive, environmentally sound and less wasteful, FAO Deputy Director-General for Natural Resources, Maria Helena Semedo, said today.

If you’re on a diet in 2016, restricting your carb intake might be on your list of New Year’s resolutions. But around the world, demand is on the rise for starch and other forms of carbohydrate, as incomes rise and consumer preferences change. It might seem strange that demand for a starchy root crop would increase with higher incomes. It might seem strange that demand for a starchy root crop would increase with higher incomes. But the multiple applications of cassava in diverse markets have helped it fight its reputation as an economically ‘inferior’ commodity.

FAO 18 January 2016, Rome -  A new FAO book out today takes a close look at how the world's major cereals maize, rice and wheat - which together account for an estimated 42.5 percent of human calories and 37 percent of our protein - can be grown in ways that respect and even leverage natural ecosystems.

ISAAA releases a map infographic showing the countries that are planting and importing biotech crops. In the last 19 years, more than 60 developed and developing countries have either planted or imported biotech crops. Twenty-eight countries planted, and 39 more imported biotech crops in 2014.

According to a new study led by researchers from McGill University and the University of British Columbia in Canada, drought and extreme heat events slashed cereal harvests in recent decades by 9% to 10% on average in affected countries, where the impact was greatest in the developed nations of North America, Europe, and Australasia.