Cheshma Shirin is a village in Afghanistan where Fatema and her three children live. She weaves wire mesh for gabions to protect the village from flooding and erosion. It is a necessary skill in an area that has suffered from increasingly extreme weather, with floods and droughts affecting the villages. Fatema learned this skill through an Emergency Food Security project funded by the and the (FAO), which provides essential livelihood support, health services, and food assistance to the people of Afghanistan. The project complements other FAO programmes aimed at long-term recovery and resilience-building.
FAO
During the holidays, we spend more time with family and friends, cooking, exchanging gifts or travelling to meet loved ones. All of these actions can be done in a more sustainable way, respectful of ourselves, our cities and our planet. Sustainability, in fact, goes beyond the environment; it includes other things that people need, such as jobs, equal opportunities, health, education, safety and a vibrant quality of life. Here are to make this holiday sustainable, merry and bright, such as cutting back on your water usage, shopping with responsible companies, promoting inclusion and respect for others and sharing what you have learned.
Monitoring is key to defining actions for healthier and more sustainable food systems. The Food Systems Countdown Initiative, in which collaborates, has published a new brief—the first in a planned annual series—that presents the current state of national food systems. The report identifies areas of improvement, proposes solutions, and inspires stakeholders that progress can, and must be made. The aims to build a science-based system to track the performance of global food systems toward 2030 and the conclusion of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2023 has received hundreds of great pictures from over 50 countries around the world. The images demonstrate the many benefits of millets, from their diversity to the variety of nutritious dishes they can produce, their ability to thrive on arid lands, and their market potential. The contest jury had a tough time deciding on the first prize, which went to Jonathon Rees from South Africa. The picture shows a woman harvesting Pearl Millet after a morning gathering Marula fruit to make traditional beer and oil. The second prize will be chosen from four candidates, which you can vote for on.
Camelids are key to the livelihoods of millions of households across over 90 countries. From alpacas to Bactrian camels, dromedaries, guanacos, llamas, and vicuñas, they are a source of meat, milk, fiber, fertilizer, and transportation in hostile environments like deserts and highlands where other livestock species cannot survive. The aims to build awareness of the untapped potential of camelids in building resilience to climate change and to advocate for greater investment in the camelid sector.
through funding from the Africa Development Bank, have excavated a pond to store water, provided a solar-powered water pump for irrigation and seeds, empowering female farmers like Lilly in South Sudan, to be able to plant and sell their vegetables.
Women in Niger experience gender-based violence in various forms including physical and sexual abuse, social norms that limit their participation in decision-making and community activities and being forced to marry at an early age. Child marriage violates human rights and hinders development efforts. It limits girls' education and leads to health issues. It also breeds reliance on men and limits opportunities for young women to make their living. The of the United Nations (FAO) has implemented several projects in rural Senegal to raise awareness among all community members about the dangers of this practice, for girl children and the community at large. FAO works with communities to set up discussion and action groups called Dimitra Clubs.
Mountains are natural treasures that we must cherish. They are home to 15% of the world´s population, host about half of the world's biodiversity hotspots, and provide fresh water to half of humanity. Unfortunately, they are threatened by climate change, contamination, and overexploitation. International Mountain Day 2023 (13 December), under the title “”, aims to raise awareness about the relevance of mountain ecosystems and calls for solutions and investments that increase the ability of mountains to adapt to daily threats and extreme climatic events.
In the face of climate change, pastrolists in South Sudan are losing their livestock and in turn, their livelihoods. With support of through funding from the Africa Development Bank, , now have enough water for the animals.
This illustrates , which presents over 50 actions that policymakers and governments can take - from biodiversity monitoring to conservation.
In the mountainous Tokushima region of Japan, farmers have grown local varieties of millet, vegetables and other crops for more than 400 years. But in recent times, the cultivation of millets almost died out. Only the love of a farmer in Nishi-Awa helped save a local variety of finger millet from vanishing completely. The Nishi-Awa site is remarkable because, on extremely steep slopes normally deemed unsuitable for agriculture, farmers derived an innovative way of cultivating indigenous varieties of crops without converting the land into terraced fields. The United Nations officially designated 2023 as the to raise awareness of their nutritional and health benefits.
Our current agrifood systems impose huge hidden costs on our health, the environment and society, equivalent to at least $10 trillion a year, according to an by the covering 154 countries. This represents almost 10% of the global GDP. More than 70% of those hidden costs are driven by unhealthy diets that might lead to obesity and non-communicable diseases. Low-income countries are proportionately the hardest hit by this situation. The report urges governments to use true cost accounting to transform agrifood systems to address the climate crisis, poverty, inequality and food security.
A that the hidden costs from how we produce, transport, process and consume food are at least 10 trillion dollars a year.
shows the effects and repercussions of water in Peru because of climate change.
The sea urchin is considered a culinary delicacy in many countries and faces the threat of overfishing in some areas. However, while some sites are lacking in the species, other areas are experiencing excessive sea urchin populations that can lead to the depletion of algae and other marine vegetation, so-called sea urchin barrens. These two contrasting situations call for individualized solutions. is countries and farmers tackle these two issues by creating specific guidelines for restorative aquaculture and helping with the removal of urchins and their sale in culinary markets, helping to restore algae populations while enhancing the value of these species.