More African stakeholders are calling for increased adoption of GM crops to benefit farmers in the continent. During the recent launch of ISAAA's 2014 report on commercialized biotech crops, stakeholders in Burkina Faso and Kenya including policy makers, farmers and academicians said that the reported benefits should be enjoyed by the African farmers as well.

Branza lives in an orphanage of Antananarivo because his parents cannot afford to feed him.

Twelve-year-old Branza has lived in an orphanage in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital, since 2010, because his parents cannot afford to feed him.

25 February 2015, Nassau - Over the last two decades efforts to combat hunger and malnutrition in the Caribbean have made substantial progress, but these need to be further strengthened, according to FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

 

A new research center was launched at the University of Sheffield to tackle global food security issues. The newly formed P3 (Plant Production and Protection) Centre of Excellence for Translational Plant and Soil Science will take world-class bench-top research in the field to solve many of the problems currently faced by plant and soil biology.

Researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia have developed salt tolerant wheat that allows farmers to grow the crop in saline soil. In their study, published in Nature Biotechnology, the team created the new wheat by crossing a modern strain with an ancient species, resulting in a new plant that can withstand soil most commercial wheat can't survive. The team says they are the first to prove the development of a salt tolerant agricultural crop

A cooperative of women in Ethiopia is set to reach the international market thanks to a partnership between Italian gourmet food store Eataly and FAO. The two joined forces in 2013 to support family farmers around the globe in boosting their production and finding ways to reach new overseas customers. The work with the women's cooperative is one example of this collaboration.

A young biotech firm known as Arvegenix is working on field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) as a viable commodity crop for farmers using advanced breeding technology. Pennycress seeds contain 36% oil, about twice the amount of oil in soybean. Pennycress oil has properties suitable for biodiesel and aviation fuel.

The current model of agricultural production is no longer acceptable to achieve food security. That is according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Director General José Graziano da Silva, who delivered a talk at the International Forum on Agriculture and Climate Change on February 20, 2015 held in France.

Starting on January 30, 2015, CIAT’s new entomology laboratory has opened its doors. A scientific research space watched over by the portraits of Anthony Bellotti and César Cardona, entomologists, and highly recognized scientists of the Center, who, decades ago, started this dream, and to whom we pay sincere and heart-felt homage.

17 February 2015, Rome/Conakry - Tens of thousands of people in rural areas of Guinea worst-hit by the Ebola epidemic will receive training on how to prevent the spread of the disease and support in producing food and generating income, through an agreement involving the World Bank, the country's government, and FAO.