FAO in North America

Responding to HIV and gender inequality in emergencies

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 30, 2012

Photo: © Regional Emergency Office for Eastern and Central AfricaEast and Central Africa continue to face both acute and chronic emergencies that render rural communities affected by food insecurity, gender inequality and HIV/AIDS even more vulnerable.

There are 67 million undernourished people in the region and 3.5 million living with HIV, a large percentage of them rural women. In emergency situations, risks of HIV infection increase through displacement, exposure to sexual exploitation, abuse and gender-based violence.

Last week the global AIDS community converged on Washington, DC, for the 19th International AIDS Conference. Among the nearly 24,000 conference participants was Karine Garnier who manages a regional FAO project supporting people affected by HIV and gender inequality in Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Rural communities in these countries are improving their livelihoods and nutrition through training sessions using the junior and adult Farmer Field and Life School methodology, where farmers learn through observation and experimentation in their own fields and communities.

The project has reached 80,000 men, women and children with a curriculum aimed at increasing awareness of gender issues, reducing the stigma of HIV and improving nutrition levels and food security.

Says Garnier:

“The farmers are there for their own economic benefit, but the social outcome is also very good.”

Read the full interview with Garnier: Addressing HIV in emergencies

Watch a video profiling the project’s Junior and Adult Farmer Field Schools in Northern Uganda: Empowered over their fields, empowered over their lives.

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Vietnamese fish farms seek greener model

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 24, 2012

In the last five decades, world fish supply has outpaced global population growth, and today fish provides more than 4.3 billion people with about 15 percent of their intake of animal protein, according to FAO’s latest State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report. In 2010, people consumed about 128 million tonnes of fish. Stimulated by higher demand for fish, world fisheries and aquaculture production is projected to reach about 172 million tonnes in 2021, with most of the growth coming from aquaculture – one of the fastest-growing food producing sectors.

A new report from the Food for 9 billion series explores the search for a more eco-friendly fish farming model in Viet Nam: Scaling up: Vietnamese fish farms search for eco-friendly formula

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Innovative agricultural finance and risk management

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 24, 2012

FAO in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has just published a new working paper titled Innovative agricultural finance and risk management. The publication looks into the issue of risk management in agricultural finance in transition countries. These countries – like Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia – have the potential to become major world grain exporters if their agricultural yields, with investment from the private sector, increase to reach the standards achieved in similar countries around the world. This would help address the problem of rising global food demand - which FAO estimates could grow 60-70 percent by 2050 as a result of population and income growth. But to attract private investment in agriculture, new financial and risk management instruments need to be developed.

The paper identifies effective ways for international finance institutions like the EBRD to adjust their investment portfolio in order to support the creation and development of agricultural finance and risk management products, mechanisms and institutions. These include pre- and post-harvest financing instruments, price risk management and the development of trading platforms. According to the report, these advances could help reinforce the entire agriculture supply chain so that it is more profitable and secure for all parties involved, and consequently food production could be substantially improved.

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FAO: Export prices of grains rise sharply in July

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 20, 2012

According to FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture, export prices of grains have risen sharply in July. Export prices of maize increased by 20 percent in the first three weeks of July compared to their June level, while international wheat prices rose by some 21 percent over the same period.

Prices for maize were underpinned by continuous concerns about the impact of hot and dry weather conditions on yield potential of the 2012 maize crop in parts of the United States.

Deterioration of prospects for 2012 wheat production in the Black Sea region due to dry and hot weather, particularly in the Russian Federation, and strong maize values have put upward pressure on wheat prices since the second half of June.

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New expert panel reports

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 18, 2012

Credit ©FAO/Giulio NapolitanoThe Committee on World Food Security, the UN forum for reviewing and following up on policies concerning world food security, has just issued two reports prepared by its High-Level Panel of Experts.

Food security and climate change urges every country to develop its own strategy to manage climate change and risks. The coping capacity of the poor will have to be strengthened, since poor nations and the poor in all countries will be the first and hardest hit by adverse changes in climate, the report says. Action will be needed to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of coastal communities. Countries will also have to be prepared, where necessary, to resettle “climate refugees”.

The report says that food production has to be insulated to the extent possible from climate change impacts, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, which are among the most vulnerable regions to changes in temperature and precipitation and also the regions with the highest rates of malnutrition.

Social protection for food security recommends that all countries design and implement a comprehensive legally empowered social protection system to provide every citizen an opportunity for a productive and healthy life. It notes that whereas families and communities used to look after their most vulnerable members, now governments are assuming the responsibility for providing appropriate social protection measures to prevent poverty-induced hunger.

At the global level, the report recommends that the Committee on World Food Security help in bringing out an Annual Social Protection Monitor, which would provide data on the steps taken in different countries to achieve the goal of sustainable food security through a rights and life-cycle approach to entitlements. Indicators to measure the impact of social safety net programmes should include a gender audit as well, the report says.

Read more: Food security and climate change | Social protection for food security

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Fisheries in the floodlights

Submitted by Rachel Friedman on July 17, 2012

Fisheries are an important source of protein for many of the world’s poorest and a vital contributor to food security. But at the same time they face threats from overfishing, pollution and climate change. Following on the heels of FAO’s recent release of the State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012, the US Agency for International Development is hosting an event on July 25th on the challenges and opportunities related to global fisheries. The event will provide concrete examples of fisheries sector reform and marine resources management from USAID programs in West Africa and South Asia. Similarly, an article published this month on PLoS ONE argues that the benefits of rebuilding global fisheries outweigh the costs.

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Ontario moves to conserve caribou habitat, forest jobs

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 13, 2012

Photo credit: PeupleloupThe Canadian province of Ontario agreed last month to manage 3 million hectares in the Abitibi River Forest according to guidance of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA), a groundbreaking accord between the Canadian forest products industry and environmental groups, signed in May 2010.

This represents the first major proposal to advance under the CBFA, which seeks to conserve significant areas of Canada’s vast boreal forest, protect threatened woodland caribou and sustain a healthy forestry industry for the communities who rely on it.

The Ontario action plan covers an area of the province’s boreal forest almost five times the size of Metropolitan Toronto. Under the plan, over 800,000 hectares of critical habitat for boreal woodland caribou would be excluded from harvest. The remaining 2.2 million hectares would remain open to forestry, with high standards of sustainable forest practices in place to safeguard wildlife and ecosystems.

The CBFA now includes nine environmental organizations and the Forest Products Association of Canada and its 19 member companies and covers more than 75 million hectares across the country.

Learn more about the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement.

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New Global Food Security Index

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 11, 2012

A new global food security index, released yesterday by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by DuPont, examines the drivers of food security in 105 countries, analyzing 25 indicators in the areas of affordability, availability, and quality and safety.

Building upon existing food security research from FAO, the International Food Policy Research Institute and others, the index considers the nutritional value and safety of food along with supply and availability issues.

It will also feature ongoing adjustment for changes in food prices and other macroeconomic factors, said Leo Abruzzese, Global Forecasting Director of the Economist Intelligence Unit, at the launch event in Washington.

Wealthy countries (surprise, surprise) top the index, led by the US, Denmark, Norway and France, but the findings also show that people in the countries with the most food do not have diets that are particularly rich in micronutrients. Rich nations do especially poorly in iron content from vegetables relative to poorer countries, according to the index.

By looking at the drivers of food security, the index creators hope it will foster dialogue about practical solutions to food insecurity.

“We share a common goal, but we don’t have a common language,” said Ellen Kullman, chief executive officer of Du Pont, explaining why the company had sponsored the project. “What gets measured, gets done,” she added.

The Washington event featured a lively discussion that included USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah; Howard Buffett, retired US General Barry McCaffrey; Ritu Sharma, President of Women Thrive Worldwide; and Dr. Patrick Westhoff, Director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

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OECD and FAO publish new Agricultural Outlook

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 11, 2012

While international agricultural commodity markets appear to have calmed after record highs last year, food commodity prices are anticipated to remain on a higher plateau over the next decade, underpinned by firm demand but a slowing growth in global production, according to the latest OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook.

Population growth, higher per capita incomes, urban migration and changing diets in developing countries, as well as rising requirements for biofuel feedstocks, are underpinning demand pressures. At the same time, agricultural output by traditional exporting developed countries has been slow to respond to higher prices in the last decade, the report says.

The report was launched at a press conference at FAO Headquarters in Rome with OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

Read more or watch the press conference webcast.

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‘Survival strategy’ from hell

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 10, 2012

As millions of people across the Sahel region of West Africa struggle with a food crisis brought on by drought, high food prices, displacement and chronic poverty, The Washington Post reports on a devastating side effect of the crisis in Niger – a potential increase in what is already the world’s highest rate of child marriage, as parents marry off their daughters for the dowries such arrangements bring.

UNICEF child protection expert Djanabou Mahonde says:

“The fear is, if the food crisis continues, that more parents will use marriage as a survival strategy and that we’ll see more girls married before the age of 15.”

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