Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – Harmful fishing subsidies that contribute to overfishing are estimated to be as high as US$35 billion, fisheries experts from the United Nations trade and development agency have said, highlighting one of the key issues that will be debated at next month's Ocean Conference. Full text...

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) is planning to bring African heads of state together to discuss the involvement of youth in agriculture, according to the bank's media outlet. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Friday welcomed the new report published by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) on food security, conflict and international migration. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) – A United Nations meeting on sustainable management of forests has discussed the importance of mobilizing resources from a diverse range of actors to ensure broad ownership as well as to advance the overall sustainable development agenda. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Global food commodity prices fell in April amid expectations of ongoing robust supplies of many key staples, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday. Full text...

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Botswana has announced plans to commence aquaculture projects in June to help eradicate poverty. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) – As the UN marked the first World Tuna Day The UN Legal Council has called for the protection of precious tuna resources and their surrounding ecosystems. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Unless urgent action is taken to feed people in north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, more than 20 million people will not find enough food to eat, the heads of the United Nations food agencies warned on Friday. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Urgent action is needed to save the lives of people facing famine in northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said on Monday at the opening of the UN food agency's Council meeting. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) – The United Nations agricultural agency has created an online database that uses satellite data and Google Earth images to figure out how much water is being used to irrigate crops, focusing on parts of Africa and the Middle East that are facing water scarcity. Full text...

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) – Botswana’s agriculture minister has challenged the nation to proactively initiate strategies to eradicate beef measles, threatening the country’s beef industry. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The international body that oversees plant health has taken a big step forward with the adoption of a new global standard to help ensure that the international trade in plants and seeds, while very profitable, is also safer, the UN food agency said on Thursday. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Consumers International (CI), a global federation of consumer rights groups, have agreed to intensify their collaboration to help end hunger. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - An FAO-led push to establish internationally agreed standards that can guide the development of catch documentation schemes aimed at keeping illegally caught fish off store-shelves and consumers' plates has taken an important step forward, the UN food agency said on Wednesday. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The crisis afflicting the strife-torn Lake Chad Basin is rooted in decades of neglect, lack of rural development and the impact of climate change, and the only way to ensure a lasting solution is to address these including through investments in sustainable agriculture, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General José Graziano da Silva, said Tuesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Warning of the increasing risk of mass deaths from starvation in many countries in Africa and in Yemen due to worsening drought and conflict, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has called for international support to prevent the repeat of the 2011 tragedy in the Horn of Africa that claimed more than 260,000 lives. Full text...

N'Djamena, Chad (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General, José Graziano da Silva this week undertook his first ever official visit to Chad as part of urgent efforts to draw the attention of the international community on the current food security crisis threatening the Lake Chad Basin region. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Global food prices monitored by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) fell in March amid large available supplies and expectations of strong harvests, the UN food agency reported on Thursday. Full text...

Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - High level technicians in food security and nutrition from seven Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions are meeting for three days in Mauritius to provide specific inputs to the Global Action Programme (GAP) on Food Security and Nutrition in SIDS. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Prince Charles of Wales on Wednesday visited the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) where he was briefed by officials from the three Rome-based UN food agencies on the massive hunger crises facing northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Ensuring young people in rural areas can access financing and earn decent incomes is essential to stem migration to Europe and elsewhere, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) President said on Monday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Despite international efforts to address food insecurity, around 108 million people in the world were severely food insecure in 2016, a dramatic increase compared with 80 million in 2015, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in a new global report on food crises released in Brussels Friday. Full text...

Brussels, Belgium (PANA) - Despite international efforts to address food insecurity, around 108 million people in the world were severely food insecure in 2016, a dramatic increase compared with 80 million in 2015, according to a new global report on food crises released in Brussels on Friday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The FAO and the International Rice Research (IRRI) have agreed to cooperate more closely to support sustainable rice production in developing countries. Full text...

Rome, Italy US (PANA) - The United Nations on Wednesday announced the appointment of David Beasley of the United States as the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which delivers emergency food assistance around the world and works with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says farmers under its support programmes in Northeast Nigeria, the region being ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency, are looking forward to a very good harvest, going by the amount and quality of crops some of them have so far gathered from their fields. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Visiting a traditional fishing community in Senegal, the President of the United Nations General Assembly has called on the countries in the region to prioritize conserving and sustainably managing their marine resources. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The UN Food agency says food security and nutrition levels in the Near East and North Africa have sharply deteriorated over the last five years. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – As part of efforts to boost rice production in the country, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Côte d’Ivoire-based Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice) have commenced the training of 300 farmers across Nigeria in paddy production technology. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The FAO Wednesday called on the global community to use treated wastewater in boosting agricultural output instead of flushing it away. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Cautioning the impact of human activity such as practices use of woodfuel on world’s forests, the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have called for better wood-energy conversions technologies and more sustainable management of forests so that everyone benefits. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Rising temperatures could release massive amounts of carbon trapped in the Earth's soil, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reporterd on Tuesday, warning that soil management could make or break climate change response efforts. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is further scaling up its activities in drought affected regions of Somalia thanks to a US$22 million loan approved this week by the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which complements the loans already provided by FAO's Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN and its humanitarian partners on Thursday appealed for US$166 million to aid Kenyan pastoralists and farmers whose livestock and crops are suffering following what the government declared a "national drought disaster." Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - The European Union (EU) has allocated MRs 115 million Mauritian Rupees (38 rupees = 1 euro) to Mauritius, under the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) Flagship Initiative, to support climate smart agriculture in the island, PANA learnt Tuesday from official sources in the Mauritian capital. Full text...

Pretoria, South Africa (PANA) - Government policies that bring rural young people into the economic mainstream are essential for South Africa’s sustainable development, according to a global report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Potatoes grown from Dutch seeds will yield 2 to 4 times bigger harvests for small-scale, poor farmers in East Africa than potatoes grown using local seed potatoes, a dutch firm says. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Some 2.7 million people in parts of Kenya are in urgent need of water and sanitation following the onset of a severe drought, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday, urging the international community to assist the country over the natural disaster. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Food shortages are stalking Tanzania's population and the situation is worse in rural areas, according to latest findings by a regional non-governmental organization. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Development projects, supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), contributed to raising the incomes of poor smallholder farmers and their families in parts of rural Mozambique, the UN agency said Thursday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Global food supply conditions are robust, but access to food has been dramatically reduced in areas suffering civil conflicts, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday. Full text...

Nairobi,Kenya (PANA) - The FAO Food Price Index rose slightly in February, marking its seventh consecutive monthly rise, led by increasing wheat and maize prices, the UN food and agriculture agency said Thursday. Full text...

Britannia, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth on Monday evening launched the island's first organic farming zone at Britannia, in the south of the island. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - In a bid to mitigate the impact of persistent drought, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) in partnership with Rural Education and Agriculture Development Organization (READO), a local non-governmental organization, is introducing a drought resistant variant of sweet potatoes in Somalia. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - Mankind's future ability to feed itself is in jeopardy due to intensifying pressures on natural resources, mounting inequality, and the fallout from a changing climate, warns a new UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report out on Wednesday. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – Opposition United Progressive People (UPP) party in Zambia has petitioned Chief Justice Irene Mambilima, asking him to set up a tribunal to probe the Minister of Agriculture, Dora Siliya, implicated in the US$34.5 million Zambia-Malawi maize exportation scandal, known as the maizegate scandal. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Gambian Minister of Agriculture, Omar A. Jallow (OJ), has said that agriculture has to be turned from subsistence and life sustaining to commercialized farming and products exported. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Sixteen East and Southern African countries agreed Thursday on urgent plans of action aimed at boosting the region’s capacity to manage emerging crop pests and livestock diseases, including armyworm and avian influenza. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The outgoing head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Kanayo F. Nwanze, has urged development leaders and the Fund's governors to ensure there is continued rural investment for countries to meet their commitment to ending poverty. Full text...

Rome, Kenya (PANA) - Fossoun Houngbo, former Prime Minister of Togo, has been appointed the sixth President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN agency said on Tuesday. Full text...