Make food systems climate resilient now or future production will be compromised, UN warns

Dubai/Rome, 13 February 2017 (United Nations) – Failure to act now to make our food systems more resilient to climate change will “seriously compromise” food production in many regions and could doom to failure international efforts to end hunger and extreme poverty by 2030, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva warned today. “Agriculture holds the […]

As Yemen food crisis deteriorates, UN agencies appeal for urgent assistance to avert catastrophe – “The current level of hunger in Yemen is unprecedented”

SANA’A, 10 February 2017 (World Food Programme) – The number of food insecure people in Yemen has risen by three million in seven months, with an estimated 17.1 million people now struggling to feed themselves, according to a joint assessment by three UN agencies. Of the 17.1 million food insecure people, about 7.3 million are […]

Three months after Hurricane Matthew, 1.5 million Haitians face hunger

  18 January 2017 (United Nations) – While the number of Haitians facing hunger in areas hardest hit by Hurricane Matthew has declined steadily in the three months since the deadly storm ripped through the tiny island nation, more than 1.5 million people nevertheless remain food insecure, the United Nations said today. The UN World […]

Thousands of Afghan children dying of hunger amid “unprecedented” displacement

9 January 2017 (United Nations) – Despite attempts to increase food aid in Afghanistan, children bear the brunt of the country’s nutritional crisis, the United Nations humanitarian arm today reported, warning that the ongoing fighting has also led to record number of children at risk of abuse and exploitation. According to the recently-issued Humanitarian Needs […]

Record drought in Bolivia drains lakes, threatens capital, and kills livestock by the thousands – “The situation in our area is critical”

4 January 2017 (The Associated Press) – Last year, the flowering quinoa plants painted Florencio Tola’s farmlands in vibrant sepia and ochre tones. But this season, all that could be seen was the straw colour of dried-out stalks that never germinated amid Bolivia’s worst drought in 30 years. Nearby a collection of scrawny cows, with […]

Civil conflict and unpredictable weather cast “long shadow on food security” in 2016 – UN

8 December 2016 (United Nations) – This year, the world suffered many weather-related shocks and civil conflicts which pressured food security for many countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said today in a new report, which said that while the global agricultural situation is posited to improve in 2017, some 39 countries […]

No more mass deaths from drought in Northeast Brazil

By Mario Osava1 January 2017 OURICURI, Brazil (IPS) – The drought that has plagued Brazil’s semiarid Northeast region since 2012 is already more severe than the 1979-1983 drought, the longest in the 20th century. But prolonged dry spells no longer cause the tragedies of the past. There are no widespread deaths from hunger or thirst […]

UN launches $2.66 billion appeal for emergency assistance in Sahel region – ‘The Sahel will remain the site of one of the world’s major humanitarian operations in 2017’

  7 December 2016 (UN) – The United Nations and its partner non-governmental organizations today launched an appeal for $2.66 billion to provide emergency assistance across eight countries in the Sahel region, where “millions of people still live in conditions of deplorable human suffering.” “The Sahel faces considerable challenges and will remain the site of […]

UN warns 330,000 people are ‘one step from famine’ in Madagascar drought

By Peter Lykke Lind 25 November 2016 (Antananarivo) – The severe drought afflicting southern Madagascar has left 330,000 people on the brink of famine, a senior UN official has warned. Three successive years of failed rains have left the island nation wrestling with crop failure and a chronic lack of food and clean drinking water, […]

Climate models: each 1°C increase in global temperature reduces global wheat production by average of 5.7 percent

By Janne Hansen23 November 2016 (PhysOrg) – Three independent methods of modelling climate change impact on yield display the same bleak tendency: When global temperature increases, wheat yield will decline. This is demonstrated in a study carried out by an international group scientists, including Professor Joergen E. Olesen and Postdoc Mohamed Jabloun from the Department […]

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