The Regional Laboratory Network on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Food and Agriculture in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia concluded its fifth annual consultation meeting in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, marking another milestone in a regional initiative that has grown into an established platform for technical cooperation on AMR surveillance and laboratory capacity.

Creating a new generation of farmers requires more than encouraging young people to enter agriculture. It means ensuring that they can build viable livelihoods, access land, finance and markets, and see rural areas as places where they can build their future. FAO Director-General QU Dongyu opened the High-Level Ministerial Conference on Generational Renewal in Rural Areas alongside David Vlajčić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Croatia. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the State Association of Livestock and Poultry Industry of Turkmenistan have launched a new project to strengthen cattle breeding and expand access to reliable, high-quality artificial insemination services across the country. The project aims to increase the number of pedigree cattle in Turkmenistan and to increase national capacity to provide effective and high-quality artificial insemination services to support the widespread introduction of livestock breeding methods using modern digital technologies. 

Today, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) opened the joint Seventeenth International LANDNET Workshop and Second Interregional Dialogue on Family Farming, convening policymakers, land professionals, researchers and representatives of civil society and the private sector to identify practical solutions for more equitable access to land and improved land governance.

Chestnut trees provide food, income and environmental benefits to communities around the world and are an important part of many forest ecosystems. They are an important species across Europe and Central Asia. Yet these valuable trees continue to face a major threat from chestnut blight, a devastating plant disease that has transformed chestnut forests in many regions. To raise awareness of this disease and support its diagnosis and management, the Virtual Learning Center of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched a new self-paced online course on chestnut blight: Understanding, identifying and managing the disease.

Remzije was among the rural women supported through the project Promoting Rural Women's Empowerment in Kosovo, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) with support from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). 

QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today called for a systemic and inclusive approach to securing a sustainable future for the next generation of farmers and rural communities. Speaking at the High-Level Ministerial Conference on Generational Renewal in Rural Areas hosted by Croatia, he stressed that enabling young people to choose agriculture and rural life requires not only support for farming, but also access to land, finance, knowledge and technology, as well as affordable housing, connectivity, childcare, education, health services and opportunities to build a family and a good life.

Ukraine is entering the peak harvest period at a time when disruptions to Black Sea export flows are further straining the country’s grain storage capacity. In response, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Mercy Corps, and the Ukrainian Red Cross – working closely with Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food – are launching a new programme to provide farmers with temporary grain storage solutions. Supported by the Government of Canada, the European Union, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the United States Department of State, the initiative will help farmers across nine oblasts safely store their harvest as export constraints compound the impact of war-related damage to storage and logistics infrastructure.

Mamura Mingbaeva still wakes up before sunrise to work on her farm in Uzbekistan, just as she has done every day in the past 30 years. In her community, many rural women earn income by selling milk and sour cream, and she also learned milk processing in the family.

Natural hazards are unavoidable. The way we mitigate and manage them is within our control – and preparedness is the first line of defence. The Europe and Central Asia region is vulnerable to several types of natural hazards, including floods, storms, droughts, wildfires and landslides. Due to the effects of climate change, climate-related hazards in particular have increased in frequency and intensity over the past few decades. The agriculture sector and food security are heavily impacted by these phenomena. FAO estimates that the agriculture sector absorbs more than 26 percent of total economic costs from climate-related disasters.