Showing 1 - 10 of 17
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.
China ramps up global yuan push
News, Samuel Shen & Tom Westbrook, Published on 03/05/2025
» As Chinese President Xi Jinping toured Southeast Asia last month to forge closer ties against higher US tariffs, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) was seizing a moment of confusion and disruption in global trade to promote greater usage of the yuan.
How green is the energy from our hydro dams?
Oped, Kongpob Areerat, Published on 29/05/2024
» Thailand’s National Energy Plan (NEP), a blueprint for the country’s energy strategy from 2023 to 2037, has earned praise for its noble goal of increasing the use of clean, renewable energy. The plan states that by 2050, half of the electricity consumed locally must be clean and renewable energy — solar cells, wind, biomass, small nuclear and hydro dams.
Give women farm sector power
Oped, Jong-Jin Kim, Published on 06/03/2024
» Despite women's significant contributions to our agrifood systems in the Asia-Pacific region, women continue to face persistent obstacles, including limited access to resources, services, and discriminatory practices all along the food value chain. As we gather to celebrate this year's International Women's Day (IWD), it is time for action to fully recognise women's indispensable role in the fields, in the factories, and those running small and medium-sized companies, associations and cooperatives -- all of which produce the nutritious food we eat each day.
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).
Investor doubts grow as China loses its lustre
News, Mike Dolan, Published on 14/09/2023
» Whether China has become "uninvestable" or not, avoidance of the world's second-largest economy suggests the economic and political risks there have simply become too hard to assess.
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.