According to the report titled ‘Hunger Hotspots’, Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria top the list and face disastrous levels of acute hunger.

“The magnitude of suffering is alarming. It is incumbent upon all of us to act now and to act fast to save lives, safeguard livelihoods and prevent the worst situation. In many regions, the planting season has just started or is about to start. We must run against the clock and not let this opportunity to protect, stabilize and even possibly increase local food production slip away,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.

The report recommends urgent short-term actions in each hunger hotspot to address existing and future requirements. These range from launching cash-for-work schemes, distributing drought-tolerant seeds, vaccinating livestock to rehabilitating water-harvesting structures, increasing food as well as nutrition assistance, and boosting income opportunities for vulnerable communities.

FAO launched its new Green Cities Initiative and Action Plan at a high-level virtual event to help transform agri-food systems, improve nutrition and end hunger in a post COVID-19 era.

Underlining the huge potential of cities in reducing the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on people’s health, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu encouraged all stakeholders to appreciate the vital role of cities in building back better and the urgency of innovative, comprehensive actions.

The new initiative also includes setting up a “Green Cities Network”, where cities of all sizes will exchange experiences on best practices, as well as build city-to-city cooperation opportunities.

Tech giant Google and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN have developed a tool – Earth Map – an innovative web-based tool to provide analytically cogent insights as well as FAO’s considerable wealth of agriculturally relevant data.

The map has also been designed to empower and provide integrative synergies with the UN food agency’s Hand-in-Hand geospatial platform.

“I am convinced that transforming our food systems to feed the world will be achieved with a digital agriculture. We need to make digital technologies accessible to everyone,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.

FAO’s latest report titled “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators 2020” highlights lack of progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Here are the main highlights:

• According to the latest data contained in this report, collected before the COVID-19 pandemic, progress remains insufficient in the food and agriculture domain, that the world is not on track to meet the relevant targets by 2030.

• Now, the COVID-19 crisis is making the achievement of these targets even more challenging.

• The most recent 2019 estimates show that prior to the pandemic, nearly 690 million people, or 8.9 percent of the world population, were hungry.

• Worldwide, moderate or severe food insecurity increased between 2015 and 2019, and now affects about 2 billion people.

• The productivity and incomes of small-scale producers are systematically lower than those of larger food producers on average.

• Gender inequalities in land rights are still pervasive. In 9 out of 10 countries assessed, relatively fewer women than men have ownership and/or control rights over agricultural land.

• While water stress remains at a safe 17 percent at global level, regions such as Central and Southern Asia and Northern Africa register very high water stress levels, at over 70 percent.

• The world’s forest area continues to decrease, though at a slightly slower rate than during the previous decades. Despite the overall loss of forest, the world has made some progress towards sustainable forest management.

Impact of COVID-19 on agriculture and food statistics

The COVID-19 outbreak has intensified data scarcity problems when timely, reliable information has become even more important for immediate policy responses and for monitoring national and international development agendas.

“Many data collection activities rely on direct or face-to-face interviews and have been postponed or suspended as countries remain on lockdown. At the same time, mitigation and contingency plans are being put in place in many countries. Data producers have been revising their strategies, mainly by shifting to alternative data collection means and using new statistical methods to minimize data gaps and impact on data quality,” the report said.

The world was already off track to achieve the SDGs by 2030 and the ongoing crisis triggered by COVID-19 has made it even harder to achieve the goals as well as to evaluate progress where it is being made, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said.

“We need better data to better understand the path we need to take to get to our destination. Knowing more about where we are and how slowly or quickly we are moving will help us focus our efforts and actions to target interventions to achieve SDGs,” said FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero.

Meanwhile, the UN food agency also launched a report titled “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators 2020” that states that the ongoing unprecedented global health crisis is making the achievement of these SDG targets even more challenging.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has sought “extraordinary collaboration” to transform agri-food systems in Africa in order to ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all people.

Speaking at a virtual summit of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), FAO Director-general Qu Dongyu called on stakeholders to work together in “new ways” that are environmentally sustainable, adding there is an urgent need to tap the potential of traditional African food items as they are under-researched but promising in terms of micro-nutrient content.

The FAO chief also noted that “building back better” from the ongoing crisis triggered by COVID-19 requires better production, better nutrition and better environment for all.

Global food prices increased for the third consecutive month in August, led by coarse grains, vegetable oils, and sugar, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said.

The UN food agency’s food price index, averaged 96.1 points in August versus 94.3 in July. The index tracks monthly changes for a basket of dairy products, cereals, oilseeds, meat, and sugar.

The Rome-based FAO also lowered its forecast for world cereal production in 2020 by 25 million tonnes from a July projection, due to expectations of a lower maize output in the US.

Intensive control operations in India and Pakistan have significantly lowered locust infestations in both nations, said Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in its latest advisory.

As a result, the second generation of breeding is likely to be on a much smaller and more manageable scale.

Dr K L Gurjar, deputy director at Locust Warning Organization at Jodhpur said it is a “big relief” to the country which is facing threat of locust attacks since the past one and half year.

In order to ensure steady global supply during COVID-19 pandemic, New Delhi has assured the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations that India will consistently export agricultural products without any disruption.

“We will not let any disruption happen in global supply. We are well prepared to step up farm exports as we have enough stocks,” Agriculture commissioner S K Malhotra said during the virtual meeting of FAO’s 35th Asia-Pacific regional Conference (APRC).

Mr Malhotra added the government is focusing on wellness food and nutraceuticals also while developing “Brand India” in campaign mode.

It is to be noted that the South Asian nation’s agri-export rose by 23.24% to Rs 25,553 crore in March-June this year.

The Board of the Green Climate Fund has given approval to several new projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Armenia and Colombia for promoting zero-deforestation cocoa production, rural green growth and community-based forestry initiatives respectively.

Along with the $11.8 million approval for Côte d’Ivoire, other two FAO-led projects in Armenia and Colombia, for a total amount of $58.5 million received official nod from the Green Climate Fund.

“These approvals show that FAO is a strong partner for Members looking to meet their climate goals with inclusive rural growth strategies,” said Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General, Climate and Natural Resources.