News of food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (5.12)

OA show ('918 '); for more detailed information or information on Issue 7, please contact the Permanent Representative Office of FAO Contact address: china.fao@agora.stm.it or q.liang@agora.stm.it the famine in the horn of Africa is very serious, the speed of sustainable development of world agriculture slows down, experts call for improving the role of banana industry in the environment and society, improving the important role of cassava in eradicating hunger and poverty, agricultural development foundation will shoot a documentary to save AIDS orphans According to the world food programme, famine in the horn of Africa is very serious The FAO information and early warning system recently warned that if there is no rainfall in the near future, famine in the horn of Africa may be more serious than that in 1984-1985 Because of the persistent drought, 16 million people in Ethiopia, kibuti, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda are threatened by hunger In response, FAO director general Diouf believes that the humanitarian crisis in the horn of Africa has reached a very serious level and calls on the international community to respond urgently and adequately Director general Diouf was recently appointed chairman of the UN long term food security task force by UN Secretary General Annan Food shortages are particularly severe in eastern and southern Ethiopia, where the number of people dying of hunger is reported to be increasing Due to political instability and civil strife, parts of Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda need urgent food aid The impact of drought on grain production has brought total grain imports to record levels in the countries of the horn of Africa, which are currently estimated to require more than 6 million tons At the same time, due to the low international prices of some export commodities such as coffee, the affected countries lack foreign exchange to pay for the grain they need to import As a result, food aid has been in the region for 15 years and is expected to increase further The eighth meeting of the inter Agency Committee on sustainable development was held in New York from April 24 to May 5 FAO warned that since the World Conference on environmental protection and development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 8 years ago, the process of world agriculture towards a more sustainable development has slowed down and still faces many challenges identified by the conference FAO was responsible for the agricultural and land management issues of the conference and presented a report entitled "sustainable agricultural and rural development" to the conference According to the report, although some progress has been made in integrated pest control, integrated plant nutrition and agricultural protection, many major issues raised in the reports of previous sessions, especially land degradation, loss of agricultural biodiversity, impact of climate change on agriculture, rural poverty and food security of farmers, are still outstanding According to the report, the degradation of agricultural land and the decline of soil fertility are still the main threats to food security and sustainable development in developing countries In the sub Saharan region, the problem has become more acute, with an estimated loss of 24 kg per hectare of annual average nutrition and an increase In South Asia alone, different forms of land degradation are estimated to cause losses of up to $10 billion per year One of the most widely used methods to prevent land degradation is conservation tillage At present, there are millions of hectares of arable land in the world using this method, in order to minimize the degree of land imbalance With regard to the situation of food and agricultural security, the report points out that while the absolute hunger population in most developing countries is decreasing or fluctuating, the absolute hunger population in sub Saharan Africa has been increasing In contrast to other regions, the proportion of undernourished people in sub Saharan Africa has barely changed in the past 26 years According to the report, the overall statistics mask the progress made by individual countries in overcoming hunger and poverty Successful examples have proved that hunger can be eliminated by implementing the right policies and measures, improving land ownership, eradicating poverty, creating jobs and reducing rural migration Another major constraint on sustainable agriculture and rural development was the decline in official development assistance during the 1990s According to 1998's forecast, although the official development assistance provided by OECD countries to developing countries and multilateral development institutions reached US $51.9 billion, it declined sharply in the late 1990s, and the total amount of official development assistance is still at the level of 1980 With regard to land management, the report considers that integrated planning and management of land resources is an important tool in the face of the increasing population pressure on land, water and biological resources Integrated land planning and management has a variety of purposes, including the protection of the environment and biodiversity, the protection of natural resources, the promotion of economic development, the creation of employment, the eradication of poverty, the enhancement of food security and the guarantee of access to land for people in vulnerable and remote areas Recently, FAO held an expert meeting on the impact of consumers on banana export industry The conference discussed the impact of consumers on how to improve the environmental and social role of banana export industry, and aimed to promote cooperation among all parties to improve the environmental and social role of banana export industry Many experts from all over the world attended the important meeting In terms of the total amount of products, banana is the fourth most important food crop in the world after rice, wheat and corn It is not only a major food but also an important export Banana exports alone amount to US $5 billion a year, which provides a lot of employment and income opportunities for many developing countries Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are the main banana producing countries, and 10 million of the 12 million tons of global banana production come from these countries The banana industry directly provides employment opportunities for farmers in these countries and indirectly supports other industries However, 80% of the exported bananas are produced in large-scale intensive plantations, and a large number of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used Over the past decade, consumers have begun to pay attention to the impact of intensive agriculture and the agricultural chemicals on the environment These concerns are mainly focused on banana plantations in "biodiversity hotspots" Another concern is the poor working conditions of these plantations In addition, banana buyers in developing countries are confused in front of many banana labels, such as "organic banana", "fair trade banana", "ecological banana" and so on They don't know how to choose Experts stressed that retailers and consumers should be helped to clarify this confusion and guide them to focus on the environmental and social responsibility of the banana industry FAO supports experts' suggestions on ways to promote sustainable production and help small-scale farmers to enter the market Experts agreed that FAO should play a greater role in this regard FAO and the foundation for agricultural development recently jointly organized an international seminar on root crops in the tropics, at which a joint report was published Representatives from more than 20 countries, including private companies, farmers, non-governmental organizations, researchers, and sponsors, attended the meeting The workshop aims to adopt a global action plan and cassava development strategy According to the joint report of FAO and IFAD, cassava can play an important role in reducing hunger and poverty in developing countries According to FAO and IFAD, millions of farmers, processors and traders around the world live on cassava Cassava is an important basic crop for more than 500 million people in the world's tropical and subtropical regions Cassava can play an important role in reducing hunger if we increase production and improve market conditions For example, between 1980 and 1996, Ghana introduced high-yield cassava quality, which reduced the malnutrition population more rapidly than other countries FAO and IFAD believe that for a long time in the past, policy makers and researchers have ignored the crop In fact, the crop is the most reliable and cheapest source of food With the increase of population in the world, especially in developing countries, cassava is becoming more and more potential For example, in developing poor countries, such as replacing wheat with cassava, a lot of foreign exchange can be saved Because cassava can be planted in any place where other crops can grow, and has strong drought resistance, poor tolerance, high yield, easy storage and other characteristics, its development potential is very considerable At present, the world average output of cassava is 10 tons per hectare In 1999, the output of cassava in the world reached 167.7 million tons According to FAO, the output of cassava in 2005 will reach 208.8 million tons At present, 60% cassava is used as food and 25% as feed The global cassava strategy will not only expand the potential commercial role of cassava, but also promote the consumption of cassava In addition, the global market strategy will strive to provide better market opportunities In Africa, postpartum losses of cassava will be reduced through effective pest control and improved processing techniques This alone will increase the economic output value of cassava by more than 150%; in Asia, efforts will be made to increase the trade volume of cassava between Asia and the European Union and improve the domestic cassava market, so as to promote the cassava industry in Asia At the invitation of IFAD, the foundation for agricultural development will shoot a documentary film on saving AIDS orphans Mr Kiarostami, an internationally renowned film producer in Iran, will shoot a documentary for IFAD, which will show that rural women in Uganda's IFAD project area in Africa will save orphans who have lost their parents due to AIDS Although he is a famous international film producer, Mr Kiarostami has never been abroad to make films He plans to visit Uganda's IFAD project area from 20 to 26 April, followed by a one-day visit to IFAD headquarters In Uganda, 1.7 million children or adolescents have lost their parents or single parents as a result of AIDS 10000 rural women across the country are working for orphans infected with AIDS to guide them out of their misery IFAD supported some 36000 AIDS orphans in Uganda through donations from the Belgian Survival Fund Mr Kiarostami will receive the Akira Kurosawa award, the lifetime achievement award of the San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 30 this year News from the World Food Programme The envoy of the United Nations Secretary Longanan, the special envoy to deal with the drought in the horn of Africa, inspected the drought situation in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya and Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia and Sultan on 11-19 April After Bertini submitted his study report to Secretary General Annan, a summary of the report was released in Paris on 25 April The summary of this report draws the following conclusions: 1 Millions of people in difficulties are in urgent need of relief assistance: the priority areas of relief assistance are water, essential drugs, food, seeds and