CIHEAM Press Review

The Sfax Oleo Tour takes visitors on an eclectic trip through the olive oil-soaked region, visiting groves and sampling the many local delicacies.

Milk is an important source of protein for millions of people in Africa and it will be especially so in the face of a changing climate, which is threatening food security. Yet having far more cows is unsustainable and also bad for the climate.
A solution lies in boosting the milk-producing capacity of climate-resilient native breeds.

Increasing olive pro­duc­tion in the cen­tral Tunisian region of Gafsa is one strat­egy to diver­sify the region’s heav­ily min­ing-depen­dent econ­omy, revi­tal­ize land­scapes and pro­mote devel­op­ment.
A his­tor­i­cal oasis once heav­ily influ­enced by the Romans, Gafsa is one of Tunisia’s lead­ing pro­duc­ers of phos­phate, an essen­tial ingre­di­ent in fer­til­iz­ers, with more than 800 mil­lion tons of reserves. The sec­tor con­tributes 4 per­cent to the national GDP and 15 per­cent to its annual exports.
Despite Gafsa’s phos­phate wealth, its pop­u­la­tion has not ben­e­fit­ted from the sec­tor, accord­ing to the World Bank, and has one of the coun­try’s high­est poverty and unem­ploy­ment rates.

How can we change our farming practices to restore nature, while being able to guarantee our food security? That's what we'll be looking at in this episode of Road to Green. #TheRoadToGreen

CIHEAM Zaragoza, the Agri-Food Research and Technology Centre of Aragon (CITA), the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Zaragoza and the AgriFood Institute of Aragon (IA2), organized the XIV Congress of the Spanish Association of Agrifood Economists (AEEA) in Zaragoza from the 6 to 8 September.

Wine production in Portugal is expected to increase by 8% in the 2023/2024 season, to a volume of 7.4 million hectoliters, compared to the previous season, announced the Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho (IVV).

AL-REGHILA, Iraq: An oppressive heat beats down on the central Iraqi province of Babylon, where drought and rising temperatures are hitting bees and honey production hard.

They complained they had lost 30-40% of their crops this year.

Angry French cherry farmers dumped a tonne of rotting fruit in front of a government building in southern France on Thursday to protest against an insecticide ban that has left them vulnerable to fruit flies.

Why cooperatives are key to unleashing African food sector potential, says ingredients supplier ofi.
Africa’s food system is associated with many problems including food security, water scarcity and the need to make crops more resilient. For ingredients supplier ofi, the cooperative model is best placed to meet these challenges. ofi’s sustainability lead in Africa, Flora Coffi Sika, tells FoodNavigator more about it.

Fifty-eight per­cent of Italian tourists in 2023 are choos­ing hol­i­day des­ti­na­tions linked with food expe­ri­ences, a 37 per­cent increase from 2016, a new report has found.
The trend ben­e­fits olive millers and farm­houses, offer­ing tourists olive oil-related expe­ri­ences.

The settlement is the main producer of the fruit in the North African country

Looking over Bekaa Valley, villagers on pink-dotted terraces gather Damask roses to use in essential oils, sweets and cosmetics

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Asir region has won the 2023 World Food Gift Challenge with Asir Taste, a locally produced honey. The Sidr honey from the mountain village of Rijal Alma is made by Abdullah Al-Jurashi. The Saudi Culinary Arts Commission took part in the global challenge, which brought together 29 food and craft gifts from eight European and global culinary regions. Representatives from the commission attended the awards ceremony held recently at the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism.

Summer in Egypt was so hot this year that the managers of a 40-hectare orchard in the Nile Delta had to wrap each fruit on its mango trees with paper to shield them from the heat.
They also coated the orchard's oranges with kaolin, a type of clay, in the agricultural equivalent of applying sunblock to humans, said Laila Aly, one of the orchard's managers and a German-trained agronomist.

In Deir Mimas, a Lebanese-border town dependent on olive farming for its economy, the spectre of war with Israel is threatening this year's harvest.

The female members of the Artos Women's Agricultural Development Cooperative, established in 2015 to contribute to women's employment through the initiative of the Gevaş Honey Producers' Union, have been earning appreciation for their production of organic honey and bee products ever since.

We invite youth workers, youth educators and social educators to join our Training Intro Course on Nature and Social Permaculture within the NASPLY project! Registration form below.
Our comprehensive course is thoughtfully tailored to equip youth workers and educators with the tools they need to empower and uplift the youth they work with. Through a series of three dynamic modules, we delve into essential topics that merge nature, community, and skill-building:

A recent report elevates the views of small-scale farmers to the global stage, providing insight into their perspectives on sustainability.

With a 25,600-hectare increase in surface area from 2021 to 2022, olive groves are the most significant crop in Italy’s expanding organic agricultural landscape.

When it comes to food in Egypt, the culinary traditions of rural and urban areas largely intertwine, especially when it comes to festive dishes like molokhia (mallow), roasted duck, stuffed pigeons, and mahshy (stuffed vegetables), which are enjoyed across the country. However, there is a big amount of mainstream countryside Egyptian dishes that might have […]

The 153rd CIHEAM Governing Board meeting held in Tricase (Italy) from July 3 to 4 was chaired for the first time by Mrs Frida Krifca, Minister of Agriculture of Albania and President of CIHEAM since 1 April 2023. This meeting was also a first for the new CIHEAM Secretary General, Mr. Teodoro Miano.

LadyAgri Impact Investment Hub is supporting women agri-entrepreneurs by providing technical assistance and establishing partnerships.

On a sun-scorched shoreline in Iraq's southern marshlands, fishermen stood shovelling a grim catch: tiny fish gathered dead from the water, fit only for use as animal fodder.
Locals once lived self-sufficient lives in the vast freshwater areas that make up the UNESCO-recognised Iraqi Marshlands, filling their nets with varieties of fish and keeping large herds of water buffalo.

Through her consulting work and foundation, Mercedes Diane Griffin Forbes is working to empower women agriculturalists and drive sustainable development. 

“For a lot of the world’s food production, it is actually being done by women,” Forbes tells Food Tank. But, she continues, this work is often undervalued. 

Forbes engages with communities around the world to spotlight women’s agricultural contributions and help them formalize policies that support gender equity.

May 20 is celebrated across the globe as the United Nations World Bee Day to promote and be mindful of how much bees and other pollinators contribute to our very existence