New York, US (PANA) - UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Olivier De Schutter has urged Cameroon to take measures to achieve food security in the long-term, including investing in small farmers, increasing accountability, and implementing stricter tax laws for foreign companies that draw natural resources from the country. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Eight million people in the Horn of Africa region, most of who were affected by the region’s worst ever drought, are in need of relief assistance exactly a year after a worldwide effort to save the region from a serious food crisis. Full text...

Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) - Portuguese-speaking countries have found the right approach to tackling hunger - by a combined effort of governments, civil society and the private sector, so says the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, at a Summit of leaders of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) which began here Friday. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Switzerland and France have granted Niger FCFA 4 billion to help the African country contain the desert locust threat. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says it is stepping up its response to a tomato-eating moth that is threatening crops in the Near East. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The Desert Locust threat to pastures and croplands in Niger and Mali is growing after swarms of the insects arrived in the north of the two countries last month from Algeria and Libya, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement Tuesday. Full text...

Brussels, Belgium (PANA) – The European Union (EU) has provided food aid to 314,000 Senegalese living in areas badly threatened by drought, especially in Zinguinchor, Sédhiou, and Kolda (all in Casamance), Tambacounda, Kédougou and Matam, according to a statement issued here on Friday. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) – China will construct an agricultural research and technological demonstration centre in Baguinéda, about 40 kilometres from Bamako, the Malian capital, the Malian ministry of Agriculture, Breeding and Fisheries announced here Thursday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - While international agricultural commodity markets appear to have reached calmer conditions after record highs last year, food commodity prices are anticipated to remain on a higher plateau over the next decade, according to the latest Agricultural Outlook by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) – Determined to fight the menace of locusts across Mauritania, the National Centre for the Fight against Locusts (CNLA) Tuesday deployed five teams of officials in the eastern and central regions of the country, official sources told PANA here. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCS), in partnership with the Icelandic Red Cross, have commenced the distribution of food items, seeds and fertilizers to 40,734 farmers in households faced with a hunger crisis, following a poor harvest in 2011, the local Voice newspaper reported Tuesday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Former Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on African countries to invest more in agricultural research by supporting the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), based in Nigeria's South-west city of Ibadan, to tap into the opportunities offered by the vast arable land in the continent. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The Codex Alimentarius Commission, the United Nations food standards body, has agreed on a set of residue limits for the veterinary drug ractopamine in animal tissues. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Food Price Index fell for the third consecutive month in June 2012, dipping 1.8 percent from May to its lowest level since September 2010, an FAO statement obtained by PANA Thursday said. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The UN food standards body has agreed on new regulations -- including the maximum level of melamine in liquid milk formula for babies -- to protect the health of consumers across the world. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A new FAO-led partnership is looking to improve how the environmental impacts of the livestock industry are measured and assessed, a necessary first step in improving the sustainability of this important food production sector. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) – The Gambian Red Cross Society (GRCS) has launched "a food provision support", worth over 14 million Dalasis (about US$ 470,000), to feed hungry Gambians living in the rural North Bank and Lower River regions. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - In the wake of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Task Force on Global Food Security will be reoriented to focus on a new initiative, as part of its efforts to ensure a coherent UN system approach to the issue of food and nutrition security. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) are joining forces to combat foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) on a global scale, laying out a detailed strategy Wednesday to bring the devastating livestock disease under control. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Locusts are threatening Mali's agricultural campaign with swarms of young locusts being spotted at Aguel Hoc in the Kidal region, northern Mali, Moussa Léo Sidibé, Malian Minister of Agriculture has told the National Assembly. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is mobilizing emergency support for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to counter the rapid spread of peste des petits ruminants, a virulent livestock disease of goats and sheep. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - The Sahel region faces a threat of locusts following rains recorded on some countries in the region, a bulletin issued by the Niger-based Regional Center for Hydrology and Agrometeorology (AGRHYMET) has indicated. Full text...

Cotonou, Benin (PANA) – Experts meeting in Benin's economic capital, Cotonou, on food crisis in West Africa and economic policy instruments have expressed concern about the decline in cereal production in the sub-region. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched a ‘Zero Hunger Challenge’ which invites all countries to work for a future where every individual has adequate nutrition and where all food systems are resilient. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The European Commission (EC) is contributing more than 5 million euros (US$6.5 million) towards the Benefit-sharing Fund of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has announced. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Director General of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) José Graziano da Silva Friday welcomed the “Zero Hunger Challenge” announced by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Director-General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, south-west Nigeria, Dr. Nteranya Sanginga, has said the push for a Green Revolution in Africa's agricultural production will remain a mirage if proper attention is not paid to managing soil fertility. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Monday announced a US$3 million project aimed at improving food security and nutrition of women and young people in Egypt. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - West Africa continues to face "increasing food insecurity and malnutrition in several countries," due to a sharp drop in cereal and pasture production in 2011, combined with high local food prices and civil strife, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Wednesday. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and key partners have called on companies and organizations worldwide to join in the SAVE FOOD initiative, a global effort designed to cut down on food losses and waste. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The internationally agreed target of eliminating the worst forms of child labour by 2016 will be missed if countries don't step up their efforts to combat child labour in agriculture, the UN food and agriculture agency (FAO) warned on Monday. Full text...

Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwe earned US$95 million from tobacco exports in the first half of the year, an industry representative group said on Saturday. Full text...

Kinshasa, DRC (PANA) - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) this week provided a monthly food ration to abut 20,000 newly displaced people and host families in Beni, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), amid concerns about the effect of violence on the civilian population in the eastern part of the country. Full text...

Lome, Togo (PANA) - Ministers in charge of agriculture, regional integration and trade in West Africa have launched an urgent appeal to the international community to help mobilize financial resources in support of regional initiatives to mitigate the worsening food and nutritional crises in the region. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – The Gambia is playing host to a five-day regional workshop on prevention and control of major ''transboundary animal diseases'' with participants from five countries attending, PANA reported Tuesday. Full text...

Rome, Italy (PANA) - The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned Niger and Mali that their croplands are at imminent risk from Desert Locust swarms that are moving southward from Algeria and Libya. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The World Bank has given a US$ 6 million grant to The Gambia towards tackling the West African nation's problems resulting from ''crop failure,'' and reform programme, PANA confirmed Monday. Full text...

Lome, Togo (PANA) - Togo’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mr. Kossi Messan Ewovor, has called on all stakeholders to put in place the necessary mechanism for strengthening food security through resource mobilization and support for agricultural investment programmes in West Africa. Full text...

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (PANA) - The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) has welcomed the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition launched by the World's largest economies, called the G8. Full text...

Arusha, Tanzania (PANA) - The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on Wednesday launched a Fund of Funds focused on agribusiness investments in Africa. Full text...

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) - Under its 2012-2017 development plan for Africa, the French agriculture and food industries company, SOMDIAA, is to invest over 300 million euros or 210 billion CFA Franc in the continent's sugar industry, according to a press statement released here Tuesday by the company. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - The World Bank has approved US$120 million for agriculture in Ghana and Senegal. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The UN system has mobilized Senegal with US$ 7 million in support of the west African nation's fight against food insecurity, Valerie Amos, the UN Deputy Secretary for humanitarian affairs, announced Thursday in Dakar. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide a loan of US$ 33 million to Kenya to finance poverty eradication and drought in rural Kenya, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - On a visit to drought-stricken Chad, Spanish football star Raúl González has added his voice to urgent calls for funding to prevent a full-blown food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa, where over 17 million people are at risk of hunger and more than 1 million children under five face acute malnutrition. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has been given a key role in the G8’s next phase of a shared commitment to achieve global food security, the Alliance said in a statement made available to PANA here. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has been given a key role in the G8’s next phase of shared commitment to achieve global food security, according to a statement from the Alliance which was received here Tuesday by PANA. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana’s president John Evans Atta Mills returned home Monday from a meeting with the G-8 countries in the US, armed with a US$600 million pledge to improve food and nutrition in the country. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The US Government has announced a cash donation of US$30 million towards the emergency relief operation of the World Food Programme (WFP) to assist conflict-affected and food-insecure people in South Sudan. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A four-day workshop to examine women’s role in the search for food sovereignty in West Africa through their involvement in the ECOWAS Regional Agriculture Investment Plan will begin Tuesday in Accra, Ghana, an ECOWAS Commission statement said. Full text...