20 June 2013
FAO Statistical Yearbook Highlights Food Production’s GHG Emissions
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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released its Statistical Yearbook for 2013, which provides a lens into agriculture's contribution to climate change, natural resource management, and food security.

FAO19 June 2013: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released its Statistical Yearbook for 2013, which provides a lens into agriculture’s contribution to climate change, natural resource management, and food security.

The Yearbook covers the following topics: capital and investment; climate change; food availability; food production and trade; food prices; hunger and malnutrition; the consequences of political instability and natural- and human-induced disasters on food security; the state of the agricultural resource base and sustainability; and environmental impacts.

It notes that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agriculture sector have grown 1.6% per year since 2000, equivalent to 10% of anthropogenic emissions. It indicates that livestock and fertilizer are the two greatest contributors to emissions in the sector.

The Yearbook also highlights that 12% of the global population was undernourished in 2010-2012, and that global crop production has tripled over the past 50 years. It further underscores the increase in agricultural research and development investments. [Publication: FAO Statistical Yearbook 2013] [FAO Press Release]

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