Global food prices dropped for the tenth consecutive month in January, the UN food agency said recently. Price indices for vegetable oils, dairy and sugar drove the January decline, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said Friday. The FAO Food Price Index fell 17.9 percent below its peak reached in March 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The downward pricing trend was helped in part by a pivotal agreement signed in July to unblock Ukraine grain exports amid the ongoing war. Tracking monthly changes in the global prices of commonly traded food commodities, the latest index averaged 131.2 points in January, falling 0.8 percent since December. The FAO reported small price decreases on its latest meat and sugar indices. "Strong harvest progress in Thailand and favourable weather conditions in Brazil outweighed the impact on sugar prices due to concerns over lower crop yields in India, higher gasoline prices in Brazil, which support demand for ethanol, as well as the Brazilian real's appreciation against the US dollar," the UN agency said. Also, vegetable oil prices fell 2.9 percent, stemming from subdued global import demand for palm and soy oils and ample export availability of sunflower seed and rapeseed oils. Cereal prices remained essentially unchanged since December. International wheat prices fell for the third consecutive month. The 2.5 percent decrease relates to Australia and Russia outpacing production expectations. Meanwhile, slightly higher global maize prices were rooted in a strong demand for exports from Brazil and concerns over dry conditions in Argentina. Cheese became slightly more expensive despite dairy prices averaging 1.4 percent lower than in December, which came after lighter demand from leading importers and increased supplies from New Zealand. Currency movements drove the price increase alongside a recovery in food services and retail sales in Western Europe following the New Year holiday. Global rice prices climbed 6.2 percent from December, triggered by tighter availability. Other factors included strong local demand in some Asian exporting countries and exchange rate movements. In its latest Cereal Supply and Demand Brief, the FAO expects international trade in cereals in the 2022/23 period to decline by 1.7 percent from the previous year's record level to 474 million tons. Early indications point to likely area expansions for winter wheat cropping in the northern hemisphere. However, higher costs may affect the amount of fertiliser that can be applied to crops, with adverse implications for yields. Low domestic prices could result in a small cutback in wheat plantings in Russia, the world's largest exporter, while severe war-induced impacts in Ukraine are estimated to reduce winter wheat area plantings by 40 percent. Record planting is forecast for India, spurred by high market and support prices, and relatively high planting is projected in Pakistan as standing water from the 2022 floods is causing less hindrance than initially anticipated. In the southern hemisphere countries, most of the 2023 coarse grain crops have been sown. Brazil may post record maize plantings, while those in Argentina could decrease due to low soil moisture levels and weather conditions augur well for maize yield prospects in South Africa, the FAO said. Read more: Global food prices in 2022 hit record high amid drought, war

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has said that the cities of Bangladesh need rooftop agriculture in order to ensure sustainable food and reduce food wastage. To stress on the importance of rooftop gardening, the UN body conducted a training workshop for the ward councilors of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) on Wednesday under a project titled Dhaka Food System (DFS).   DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam attended the event as the chief guest, while Xavier Bouan, the project’s Senior Technical Adviser, addressed the event  focusing on the need to grow fruits and vegetables on the  rooftops of buildings. Read: FAO Asia-Pacific regional conference to kick off in Dhaka Tuesday “Households can reap nutritional and health benefits from rooftop agriculture. Rooftop agriculture also has positive effects on communities and society in general. They can help people to re-establish a relationship with what they eat. This is a link that has weakened since we started outsourcing our food and relying so much on industrialized production,” Bouan said. According to the Agriculture Information Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, approximately 4,50,000 roofs, covering 4,500 hectares, remain underutilized in Dhaka city. A survey using images from drones conducted by DNCC concluded that only two percent of rooftops in that part of the city had rooftop gardens. “DNCC, with the support of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development, and Co-operatives, have announced the possibility for a ten percent holding tax rebate for city residents practicing rooftop agriculture. FAO is assisting the city’s two corporations to prepare the guidelines to implement the planned tax rebate policy,” Atiqul said. Participants at the workshop provided their input into developing and applying a set of guidelines for city corporations that will assist officials in determining whether households practicing agriculture qualify for a property tax rebate.  Read: Hasina focuses on food security as FAO conference opens The DFS project, funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is working with a local organization, Proshika, to develop 20 rooftop agriculture demonstration plots throughout the city and to train 550 people from slum areas. The Local Government Division of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives is leading the DFS project implementation with technical support from FAO and Wageningen University & Research (WUR) of the Netherlands.

The food import costs are on course to rise to near record $2 trillion this year, around $128.6 billion more than predicted in June, as countries are facing ballooning costs for staples, the UN food agency said Friday. Many economically vulnerable countries, with weak economic forecasts and high debt-to-GDP ratio, are paying more while receiving less food, heaping pressure on the world's poorest. The low-income countries' food import shipments are expected to shrink by 10 percent as their food import costs for the year are expected to remain little changed, pointing to growing accessibility issues. Read: Australia to send millions to Bangladesh, Myanmar for food, shelter "These are alarming signs from a food security perspective, indicating importers are finding it difficult to finance rising international costs," the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in its twice-yearly Food Outlook report. In addition to beverages and basic foods like cereals and meat, the FAO's food import costs cover a larger range of items, from fruit and vegetables to seafood, chocolate, tea, and spices. World food prices jumped to record highs in March after the war broke out between Russia and Ukraine, the latter a key grains and oilseeds producer. Although the UN-mediated Black Sea Grain Initiative, starting July this year, guaranteed safe sea passage to ships carrying food grains in the conflict-prone region, it was unable to significantly cut food prices in the global market. Read: Currency depreciations risk intensifying global food, energy crisis: World Bank Food imports will rise by $180 billion, or 10 percent, above the previous year's record high, with high- and upper middle-income countries accounting for the majority of the increase. As the purchasing power of countries that import goods is reduced by rising prices and a stronger dollar, the rate of that bill's increase will slow, lowering volumes. Also, import costs for agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, fuel and seeds are expected to rise 48 percent to a record $424 billion from 2021, forcing some countries to buy and use less. Higher bills and a stronger dollar will cut input applications, threatening both productivity and food security into next year, the FAO said. "This will inevitably lead to lower productivity, lower domestic food availability and negative repercussions for global agricultural output and food security in 2023."

A full 90 percent of the Earth's topsoil is likely to be at risk by 2050, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN. To protect soil globally and help farmers, the UN agency Wednesday said the equivalent of one soccer pitch of earth erodes every five seconds. It also takes around a thousand years to create just a few centimetres of topsoil and to help restore lands. So, the UN agency is calling for more action by countries and partners who signed up to the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) over the last decade. The five key actions that the FAO called for tasked civilians, governments and international institutions with taking greater action to monitor and care for the soil. Also read: Most vulnerable now paying more for less food: FAO One achievement of the GSP has been the partnership with farmers and local governments to enhance soil health. Programmes were initiated to improve the amount of organic matter in the soil by adopting practices such as using cover crops, crop rotation and agroforestry, the FAO said. Costa Rica and Mexico signed up to these pilot schemes and trained farmers in the use of best practices which included using cover crops that prevent erosion, crop rotation and tree planting. Also, the GSP expanded data collection in the form of digital soil mapping. This technology informs policymakers of relevant soil conditions and empowers them to make informed decisions on managing soil degradation. Campaigns, such as International Year of Soils and World Soil Day were designed to raise youth awareness of soils and increase participation in preventing further degradation. Also read: FAO keen to work for modernisation of agriculture sector While the work of the GSP represents the efforts of non-state partners to promote sustainable soil practices, state policymakers are necessary actors in implementing a sustainable soil policy, the FAO said.

Countries are expected to spend $1.8 trillion to import the food they need this year; this would be a new world record but worryingly, it is going to buy them less food, not more, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Ever-higher fixed costs for farmers of "agricultural inputs" such as fertiliser and fuel are likely to be responsible for this year's bigger-than-ever global food import bill, the FAO said Thursday in its latest Food Outlook report. All but $2 billion of the additional $51 billion that is going to be spent worldwide on edible imports this year was owing to higher prices, the UN agency said. "Animal fats and vegetable oils will be the single biggest contributor to higher import bills this year, although cereals are not far behind for developed countries. Developing countries, as a whole, are reducing imports of cereals, oilseeds and meat, which reflects their incapacity to cover the increase in prices." Read: FAO records small drop in global food prices in April Among the most vulnerable nations, the FAO estimated that least developed countries will have little option but to spend five percent less to import food this year. The sub-Saharan African states and other nations that buy more food than they export are likely to face an increase in costs, for which they will get lower amounts of essential foodstuffs. "These are alarming signs from a food security perspective. Also, importers will find it difficult to finance rising international costs, and these could, potentially, break them," the FAO said. Read: Healthy plants can protect environment, boost economies: FAO To help avoid greater food insecurity among low-income nations and to guarantee food imports, the UN agency has recommended the creation of a balance-of-payment support mechanism.

Healthy plants have the power to help end hunger, cut poverty, protect the environment, and boost economic development, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). But even though plants make up 80 percent of the food people eat, and provide 98 percent of the oxygen they breathe, threats to their survival are piling up. According to recent data, up to 40 percent of food crops are lost due to plant pests and diseases every year, and this affects both food security and agriculture, the main source of income for vulnerable rural communities. Read: Rising incomes more harmful to environment than population growth: UN report Climate change and human activities are also altering ecosystems and damaging biodiversity while creating new niches for pests to thrive in. Also, protecting plants from pests and diseases is far more cost-effective than dealing with plant health emergencies. This is because once established, plant pests and diseases are often difficult to eradicate, and need to be controlled through sustainable pest and pesticide management, FAO says. On the first International Day of Plant Health Thursday, the UN agency called for more investment in innovation to boost food security, especially for the billions worldwide living close to the bread line. Read: Urban noise pollution, wildfires among biggest emerging environmental threats: UN It called on governments to prioritise plant health and its sustainable management in formulating policies and legislation, and on academia and research institutions to deliver science-based solutions. "We need to continue raising the global profile of plant health to transform agri-food systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable," said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, adding that investments are needed in research to find more resilient and sustainable additions to the human diet.

The 36th Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC) of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), hosted by Bangladesh  for the first time, will begin on Tuesday. The 4-day conference will be held in a hybrid format, said Agriculture Minister Dr. Mohammad Abdur Razzaque at a press conference at the Secretariat on Monday. He said the conference will continue till Friday. According to the Agriculture Ministry, the main session of the conference will be held at the InterContinental Dhaka while the opening ceremony and country showcasing at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center. Also read: Covid-19 pandemic swells number of hungry by more than 50 mn in Asia-Pacific: FAO-UNICEF Report The meetings of senior government officials, agriculture secretaries and senior government officials will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday and minister-level meetings will be held on Thursday and Friday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the minister-level meeting on Thursday. The Agriculture Minister said, “It is a glorious moment for us. We want to showcase our capabilities to the world by organising this conference successfully, so that other international organizations become interested in hosting conferences in Bangladesh in future," he said. The current state of food and agriculture in Asia and the Pacific, what need to be done to develop climate-tolerant agriculture and food system in the region, accelerating  the digitisation of agriculture value chain, prioritizing one-health approach, and economic cooperation and joint investment during Covid pandemic- will come up for discussion at the conference, said the minister at the briefing. Apart from agriculture ministers and secretaries from 46 countries in Asia and the Pacific, top officials of government and non-government organizations will also take part in it. Representatives of 43 member states, the Director General of the FAO, representatives of various UN bodies, development partners, NGOs and civil society have already registered to take part in it, said Dr Razzaque. Also read: FAO launches training for nutrition master trainers The first FAO Asia-Pacific regional conference was held in Bangalore of India in 1953. Bangladesh joined the organization in 1973.

The state of food security and nutrition in Asia and the Pacific has worsened, as more than 375 million people in the Asia-Pacific region faced hunger in 2020, an increase of 54 million over the previous year, according to a joint report just published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday in Bangkok. While hunger has increased, so too has inadequate access to nutritious foods, the report said. According to the 2021 Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition, in this region alone, more than one billion people did not have access to adequate food in 2020 – an increase of almost 150 million people in just one year. The high cost of a healthy diet, and persistently high levels of poverty and income inequality, continue to hold healthy diets out of reach for 1.8 billion people in the Asia and Pacific region. Read: Children in the Pandemic: Consortium predicts 168,000 to die hungry during crisis In recent years, progress has stalled in reducing the number of undernourished, and the prevalence of certain nutritional indicators, such as stunting in children under five years of age, was already much too high, as reported last year. Since then, the situation has worsened. While it is not yet possible to fully quantify the damage done to food security and nutrition by COVID-19, the pandemic has had a serious impact on the region. Even countries that initially reported a limited number of COVID-19 cases experienced the negative effects of the containment measures, combined with people’s health concerns, that led to a major contraction of economic activity in this region and worldwide. Disruption in food supply chains only added to the problems. The situation could have been worse without the response of governments and the impressive social protection measures they put in place during the crisis. In building back better food environments, future agri-food systems will have to provide better production, better nutrition, a better environment and better lives. Read: Millions of hungry Americans turn to food banks for 1st time To do that, FAO and UNICEF state the focus must revolve around meeting the needs of small-scale, family farmers and indigenous people in the region. Food systems must also prioritize the dietary needs of vulnerable groups, including young children and women. Commitments have been made to ensure recovery and there are opportunities to begin the hard work of advancing food security and nutrition through transforming agri-food systems such as the United Nations Food Systems Summit, the Nutrition for Growth Summit and the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Implementing these commitments will be needed to meet the second Sustainable Development Goal, SDG2, to eradicate food insecurity and malnutrition.

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, has launched a training programme for master trainers of Agriculture Ministry for building sector-wide pool of expert nutrition trainers. The programme that emphasises capacity development of government officials through training of trainers (ToT) fits the broader agenda of the National Food and Nutrition Security Framework and the related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 for Bangladesh. READ: Bangladeshi young people coming up with innovative game-changing solutions: FAO FAO experts stressed that the main output is to have trained Bangladesh Institute of Research and Training on Applied Nutrition (BIRTAN), Ministry of Agriculture officials across the country through this ToT workshop to support the government to spur nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific actions and further their successful implementation. READ: Bangladesh elected FAO Council member

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Representative in Bangladesh Robert Simpson has said the young people of Bangladesh, despite many challenges, are coming up with innovative game-changing solutions that can leverage transformation in agriculture and food sector. He, while addressing an event marking International Youth Day on Thursday, highlighted the achievements of youth in agri-food system of the country Simpson said private sector partners are promoting small-scale farming and agri-businesses to maximize their profit through access to finance, agricultural inputs, advisory services, insurance, and markets; and creating applications as a one-stop virtual sales solution. Also read: Bangladesh elected FAO Council member He also talked about the important roles of academia, private sector actors, NGOs, development partners, and the government, in nurturing the youth.  International Youth Day celebrates the qualities of young people and recognises the challenges that today’s youth face.   The theme of International Youth Day 2021 is, “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health”, with the aim of highlighting that the success of such a global effort will not be achieved without the meaningful participation of young people.  More than 50 students from seven different universities of the country joined in a discussion with six young entrepreneurs and professionals to emphasize the youths’ role in transforming the food systems.  The event was organized by FAO’s Dhaka Food System project, an initiative funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Professor Dr Lutful Hassan, Vice Chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) graced the event as the Chief Guest.  Paula Schindeler, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands was present as the special guest.  Also read: ‘Country-driven’ approach needed to limit COVID-19 effects on food security: FAO Chief “This year’s IYD theme is timely and promising. It is now well recognized that simply producing food will not ensure human and planetary wellbeing. Social-, economic- and environmental aspects of food systems are equally important for a healthier planet," said Paula. "For that we have to convert the existing food system where we will need more and more innovative and capable young people to boost the transformation process," she said. John Taylor, Chief Technical Adviser of Dhaka Food System project said with growth and expansion around the city, and rising land prices, it becomes difficult for farmers in the periphery to maintain their farms, this leads to food having to come from further and further away.  "This can lead to higher costs for our food,” said Taylor while talking about food system and its challenges.  FAO invited six young entrepreneurs and professionals, who have contributed to different areas of the food system in Bangladesh, to share their experiences with the participants.  The speakers for this event were Fahad Ifaz, CEO, iFarmer; Shamim Murad, General Manager - Digital Services, ACI Agribusiness; Sharmeen Islam Eva, student, Bangladesh Agricultural University; Mukul Islam, Successful Entrepreneur (SaFaL project); Sudip Debnath, Assistant Professor, Khulna University; and Jannati Akhter Shumi, Community Nutrition Volunteer (SaFaL project).  As expressed by youth during the Pre-Summit of the UNFSS in July, young people are concerned about the existing food systems that are no longer fit to purpose.  The current generation has not given the next generation the sustainable means of feeding a larger population.  Also read: COVID-19: WTO, FAO, WHO call for keeping food trade flowing Young people are to inherit a planet that will be four degrees warmer, threatening the availability and nutritional quality food.  From farm to fork, food systems account for about one-third of all global greenhouse gases.  Food’s value chains are becoming increasingly complex, with foods travelling longer and passing through multiple stages. In addition, food loss and waste became a major challenge in the food systems. More than 1.3 billion tons of food are lost or wasted each year.  People in the age group of 18 to 35 years comprise one third of Bangladesh's population and significant number of them are women. The health, education and active engagement of this segment are crucial for achieving a sustainable food system for the country.  The youth wish to point out that leaders today should be investing now to support the youth of tomorrow.