B4FA Week in Review – 18 October 2018

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B4FA Week in Review – 18 October 2018

October 18th, 2018 / B4FA.org

The 16th of October marked this year’s World Food Day, the 73rd anniversary of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s founding, and its annual celebration focusing global attention on the issue of food security, calling on all nations to take action to end hunger. Its theme in 2018: “Our actions are our future. A #ZeroHunger world by 2030 is possible”.

According to an article on World Food Day by the Brookings Institute, reports show that as of 2017 more than 150 million children remain stunted, about 820 million people are undernourished and more than 2.5 billion people say that they lack the resources to buy food. Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest hit with the lowest crop yields in the world, and the lack of irrigation and technology to make farming more efficient. Some pieces marking the day that specifically deal with Africa include “Hunger rising in Africa after prolonged decline: WHO on World Food Day” in Africa News and “African countries’ policies must shift to achieve zero hunger” in The Conversation, Africa.

Meanwhile, good news for rice: an agreement signed during the 5th International Rice Congress in Singapore on World Food Day between the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Crop Trust has guaranteed funding of US$1.4 million a year in perpetuity to conserve the 136,000 varieties of rice in the IRRI’s genebank in Los Baños, Philipppines. Scientists use the genetic information made available by the gene bank to develop rice varieties that can withstand climate change and pests and diseases, and that can keep up with the need to feed a growing world population and demand for rice, including in Africa.

“Half of the world’s population – around 3.5 billion people – eats rice every day,” said Matthew Morell, director general of IRRI. “The IRRI genebank is fundamental to global efforts to make the rice sector more resilient, sustainable and equitable”.

We also hear from three B4FA Fellows this week. Lominda Afedraru writes about why Ugandan banana breeders say it’s critical to add genetic engineering to their toolbox, Michael Ssali writes about the value of introducing students to biotechnology early and Henry Lutaaya sends in two stories, “Uganda takes major strides in biotech capacity development” and “Farmers’ leaders push for strategic ties with researchers”.

We welcome questions, comments and story links to [email protected]. Please also visit B4FA.org for further reading and useful resources – and follow us on Twitter or Facebook to keep up with daily news and join the conversation. We look forward to hearing from you!

Headlines

World Food Day 2018: The elusive quest to end hunger
Brookings Institute

Hunger rising in Africa after prolonged decline: WHO on World Food Day
Africa News

African countries’ policies must shift to achieve zero hunger
The Conversation, Africa

The world’s rice bowl: Protected in perpetuity
IRRI

Rice ‘safely conserved’ in Philippines gene bank
BBC

AgBio news

Why Ugandan banana breeders say it’s critical to add genetic engineering to their toolbox
Genetic Literacy Project, by B4FA Fellow Lominda Afedraru

Uganda takes major strides in biotech capacity development
The Sunrise, by B4FA Fellow Henry Lutaaya

Uganda: Farmers leaders push for strategic ties with researchers
The Sunrise, by B4FA Fellow Henry Lutaaya

How the science of biofortification grew from an idea to a food revolution
CGIAR

Ghana to begin consumption of GMO foods from 2020
Ghanaian Times