Category: Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture

By Rita Joshi BERLIN (IDN) – Global environmental threats, the opportunities brought by new sciences, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic call for the transition to the bioeconomy, says the communiqué emerging from the Global Bioeconomy Summit 2020 organised by the International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy (IACGB) composed of about forty high-level policy […]

Viewpoint by Anuradha Mittal * OAKLAND, USA (IDN) – This World Food Day (October 16) amidst the ongoing pandemic and the devastating impact of the climate crisis, a Food Systems Summit is being planned a year from now by the United Nations, to fulfil the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. As the Summit takes […]

Viewpoint by Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, UNCTAD Secretary-General GENEVA (IDN) – International trade has proven to be a critical mechanism for growth and development. It helps build stronger value chains, mitigate conflict and provides access to higher quality and quantities of goods and services. It has also provided consumers with access to a more diversified and […]

By Emil Fulajtar and Joanne Liou* VIENNA (IDN) – Harmless traces from nuclear testing more than half a century ago are helping researchers assess soil erosion rates. In Africa, about 65 percent of the continent’s farmland is affected by erosion-induced losses of topsoil and soil nutrients, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the […]

By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK IDN) – Eminent leaders from business, politics, media, the film and music industries gathered in New York on September 22 to spotlight the 8000 km  Great Green Wall – natural wonder of the world across the entire width of the African continent – as a practical, low-cost nature-based solution responding […]

By Brenda Wawa This article first appeared on Africa Renewal, December 2018-March 2019 issue. NAIROBI (IDN | INPS) – For years, boosting agricultural production was believed to be the solution to world hunger and malnourishment. But years of intensive farming with chemical fertilizers and pesticides has done little to move the needle on food insecurity, […]

By Jaya Ramachandran ROME (IDN) – In the first-ever report of its kind FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, has presented surging and perturbing evidence that the biodiversity that underpins our food systems is disappearing – putting the global population’s health, livelihoods and environment under severe threat. FAO’s State of the […]

By Jayasri Priyalal The writer is the Regional Director responsible for Finance Sector of UNI Global Union, Asia & Pacific Organization – Singapore. SINGAPORE (IDN) – Regulatory capture and the influence of powerful Transnational Corporations in lobbying the policy makers towards their own advantage is no secret. Putting profits before people and planet is their […]

By Jutta Wolf BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund for International Development (OFID) has joined hands with the United Nations atomic energy agency in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 on ending hunger, achieving food security Backed by the OFID grant of US$ 600,000, the International Atomic Energy Agency […]

By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – Strife and violence in some countries in the Near East and North Africa are casting a shadow on prospects for Zero Hunger across the entire region by 2030, according to a new report. The 2017 edition of the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in the Near […]