African leaders in agriculture are gathered for the four-day Africa Green Revolution Forum (ADRF) which opens in Lusaka, Zambia today until October 2, 2015. The event is organized by the AGRF Partners Group, the Government of Zambia and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA). This year's theme is "Walking the Talk on Youth and Women: Bringing Inclusive Agricultural Markets to Life

FAO 1 October 2015, Kathmandu - The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization welcomes the promulgation of Nepal's new constitution which has enshrined the Right to Food as a fundamental right for its citizens, FAO's Representative in Nepal said today.

FAO 26 September 2015, New York -FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today urged young people to play their part in ending world hunger, saying that their leadership is crucial to achieving this goal by 2030.
 

 Demand for cassava in Asia is on the rise. As wet or dry starch, it’s in everything from noodles to pharmaceutical products, and has a growing niche in gluten-free and low fat foods. In Cambodia, this is a massive opportunity for smallholder farmers, who depend on income from the crop to support their livelihoods.

The 3,000 Rice Genomes Project (3K RGP) is a collaborative, international research program that has sequenced 3,024 rice varieties from 89 countries. This massive dataset is a powerful resource for understanding natural genetic variation in rice as well as for large-scale discovery of new genes associated with economically important traits.

Some viruses have been domesticated by parasitic wasps and use them as biological weapons against caterpillars. However, these same caterpillars steal viral genes and incorporate them into their genomes, protecting them from yet more viruses.

Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram, 2014 World Food Prize Laureate says that wheat without using genetic modification will lead to food shortages. Interviewed live from the International Wheat Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for their program "The Country Hour," Dr. Rajaram said that genetic modification technology is needed to feed the world in the future.

Scientists from Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization and select Ugandan science journalists had a unique opportunity to meet on September 2-3, 2015, and deliberate on the various issues that have created rifts between these two professions.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and their colleagues have found that recent and projected increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have impacted, Artemisia annua, a common roadside weed in the United States. Globally, the weed is the source of artemesinin, a compound that is commonly used to treat malaria around the world.

Scientists, professors, farmer representatives, extension workers and other agriculture stakeholders in the Philippines discussed research and non-research needs on the link between GM crops and gender during a roundtable discussion titled Gender and GM Crops: Study findings and identification of gaps relevant to biosafety regulations and GM adoption in the Philippines on September 2, 2015 at SEARCA, College, Laguna.