Strengthening function as an international hub for providing strategic information on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and mobilizing new research partnerships
On Monday, February 19, 2024, 58 young agricultural trainees from Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines visited JIRCAS. The trainees were divided into two groups for an introduction to JIRCAS research (indoor lecture) and an outdoor tour at the Hachimandai Experimental Field.
The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from November 30 to December 13, 2023. As one of the events of AIM for Climate, an international initiative, a seminar introducing Green Asia was held on December 10, sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
A study published in The Lancet analyzed trends in underweight and obesity among adults (20 years and older), school-aged children, and adolescents (5-19 years) in 200 countries and regions from 1990 to 2022. The study used body mass index (BMI) to classify underweight as a BMI below 18.5 kg/m² and overweight as a BMI above 30 kg/m² for adults. For school-aged children and adolescents, underweight was defined as a BMI less than twice the standard deviation and overweight as a BMI greater than 30 kg/m². Obesity was defined as a BMI greater than twice the standard deviation.
On March 13, the United Nations Development Program released its 2023-2024 Human Development Report, titled "Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining Cooperation in a Polarized World." The report sounded an alarm about the perilous state of uneven development, rising inequality, and deepening political divides, while expressing optimism about the potential of multilateralism to foster global interdependence.
The CGIAR is an international organization established in 1971 to improve productivity and technology development in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in developing countries, and has been a leader in innovation in the field of international agricultural research. A paper published in World Development found that the adoption of crop technologies developed by the CGIAR had a significant impact on poverty reduction in low-income countries, with annual economic benefits worth $47 billion.
Using data from the PortWatch platform, which uses satellite data and big data analytics to identify and predict the impact of extreme weather events on trade, the IMF blog shows that the number of vessels in the Red Sea and Panama Canal, two key shipping lanes for global trade, has declined significantly.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European Union's weather information agency, announced that global temperatures in February 2024 were the highest on record, and sea surface temperatures were also the hottest on record.