The fifteenth of October is the International Day of Rural Women. This is a day to recognize that women’s empowerment and gender equality can lead to better lives, better production, and a better environment for all.

Today's global crises of the ongoing pandemic, conflicts, climate change, inflation and international tensions all have a serious impact on food security. More than 800 million people suffer from hunger worldwide, and the number is rising sharply, so there is a greater need than ever for governments, private sector, and the civil society to take action to alleviate hunger collaborate, as well as for raising the awareness of the public. 

In the last decade, rural communities in Europe and Central Asia have been increasingly exposed to multiple risks, increasing their vulnerability to poverty and other shocks. Recognizing the importance of social protection systems in addressing these challenges, FAO released a regional report that analyzes the specific risks and vulnerabilities faced by rural populations.

On 5–6 October the regional conference on food loss and waste in Europe and Central Asia “Enabling the change” took place to explore and discuss strategies, tools, and practical interventions to reduce food loss and waste and to identify the essential elements of environments conducive to the transition to sustainable food value chains. 

In 1989, a disease outbreak left cocoa plants and production in Brazil’s eastern state, Bahia, fully devastated. The land became abandoned until a group of rural farmers, who used to work on those fields, saw the untapped potential and rehabilitated it. 

Cotton production plays an important role in the economies of the Republic of Türkiye and many Central Asian countries, including Turkmenistan. Celebrated on World Cotton Day (7 October), cotton provides the basic input for the textile industry, contributing to export revenues of those countries and the livelihoods of thousands of farmers and workers engaged in the cotton value chain.

Earlier this summer, renowned Georgian chef Guram Baghdoshvili prepared khinkali – a traditional Georgian meat-filled dumpling – on an Instagram live hosted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and FAO.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a new project in the Republic of Tajikistan to improve regulations for the protection and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge on the topic. The three-year undertaking, “Facilitating agrobiodiversity conservation and sustainable use to promote food and nutritional resilience in Tajikistan,” is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The Mediterranean Sea is being invaded by hundreds of fish, jellyfish, prawns and other marine species from outside the region.

In the Republic of Moldova, far more women living in rural areas are at risk of poverty compared with men and with urban populations. The recently released National Gender Profile on Agricultural and Rural Livelihoods in the Republic of Moldova presents a snapshot of gender inequalities that affect various aspects of agricultural production and rural livelihoods in the country.