Showing 1 - 10 of 12
Heritage agriculture as a solution
News, Qu Dongyu, Published on 27/10/2025
» In the 18th century, a series of volcanic eruptions turned the fertile fields of Lanzarote, the easternmost of Spain's Canary Islands, into a desert of black ash. Instead of abandoning the land, farmers adapted.
FAO at 80: feeding the future
News, Qu Dongyu, Published on 16/10/2025
» This year's World Food Day marks 80 years since the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), whose mandate from the outset has been to ensure humanity's freedom from want.
Time to be the agents of change
News, Qu Dongyu, Published on 12/02/2024
» We all know that we live in a changing world. In the vast area of Asia and the Pacific that change is most evident. Over the past 20 years, the economies of many nations in the region have been moving out of the category of "least developed" and graduating into a "middle income" status. However, the positive changes that help to make our lives better, healthier, and more prosperous, are not happening at the same time equally across all countries, or even equitably within them.
Mitigating climate change impacts
News, Qu Dongyu, Published on 07/12/2023
» Growing up on a small rice farm in China in the 1960's, my family was keenly aware that any single adverse weather event could wipe out a year's worth of effort. The climate and weather patterns are something a farmer feels in his bones, but changes in these patterns and the extremity of events have, in recent years, shocked rural communities. We never imagined seasons might alter at the pace and scale we see today, bringing losses and damage that undermine years of hard-won rural development.
Water the key to food security
Oped, Qu Dongyu, Published on 11/10/2023
» This year's World Food Day celebrates one of the planet's most precious resources: water. It's essential to life on Earth. It covers the majority of the planet's surface, makes up over 50% of our bodies, helps keep us fed, supports livelihoods and is central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Russia-Ukraine war's effects on global food security
Oped, Qu Dongyu, Published on 15/03/2022
» Over the past two years, Covid-19 has presented many challenges to global food security. Today, what is happening in Russia and Ukraine adds another significant challenge.
Transforming our agrifood systems
Oped, Qu Dongyu, Published on 03/03/2022
» The current nutrition situation in Asia and the Pacific is difficult in many areas across the region. About 40% of its inhabitants cannot afford a healthy diet, and in some areas the fight against hunger has seen reversals rather than advances.
Agri-food systems need to shape up
Oped, QU Dongyu, Published on 15/10/2021
» This year's World Food Day, which wraps up tomorrow, finds us at a critical moment. The Covid-19 pandemic remains a global challenge, causing untold losses and hardship. The impact of the climate crisis are all around us. Crops have gone up in flames. Homes have been washed away. Lives and livelihoods have been thrown into turmoil due to conflict and other humanitarian emergencies. Global food security challenges have not been this severe for years.
FAO ready to act on food systems
Oped, Qu Dongyu, Published on 16/09/2021
» The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has entered a new era with a new structure and new dynamics.
Fighting two pandemics in Asia and the Pacific
Oped, Qu Dongyu, Published on 04/09/2020
» Global hunger has been on a regrettable rise in recent years, and despite Asia's economic clout, the continent -- home to more than half of the world's undernourished -- has not been spared. Now Covid-19 is leading to a slowdown of regional economic growth and further threatening food security.