7 April 2011: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released the 90th edition of its BiotechNews Update, featuring articles about activities and publications in the area of biotechnology in food and agriculture by FAO and other international organizations.

On FAO activities, the newsletter includes updates on the FAO Biotechnology Glossary, which is now also available in Chinese; the launch of an improved website on agricultural research; extension and biotechnologies of the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia; and the release of the Report of the Sixth Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources (ITWG-AnGR), held from 24-26 November 2010, in Rome, Italy, which considered the role of biotechnologies in the conservation and utilization of animal genetic resources in food and agriculture.

Other recent FAO publications relating to biotechnology include: a publication on plant breeding and farmer participation, published in collaboration with International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA); a chapter on the strategic links between biodiversity and biotechnologies, published as part of an edited volume on biodiversity, biotechnologies and regulation (in Spanish); and the FAO’s “State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources.”

Other news items address activities and publications relating to biotechnology under the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), several centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Newsletter also reports on the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). [Publication: FAO BiotechNews Update]