The main talk among the delegates assembling in Miami for the 6th International Banana Congress was about how to combat the Panama Disease – Fusarium Oxysporum, that is doing so much damage to crops across the region and in other parts of the world
Crops
Drones for disaster risk reduction in Philippines

Drones will play a major role in proactive risk reduction in the Philippines. (Image Source: Andrew Turner/Flickr)
The Philippines department of agriculture (DA) and the UN’s food and agriculture organisation (FAO) have launched drones to predict and reduce disaster risk in the agricultural sector
US$1mn for mapping Indonesian peatlands

Indonesia suffers billions in potential losses each year from the release of carbon stored in its burning peatlands. (Image Source: usdagov/FLICKR)
The Indonesian Peat Prize competition has been organised to find and establish a national standard for mapping the country’s peat most efficiently
Connecting farmers with modern market value chains

The report recommended strategic approaches to eventually improve livelihoods and revitalise rural economies. (Image Source: Lano Lan/Shutterstock)
A UN FAO report has suggested that governments across the APAC region provide an enabling environment to support the integration outputs of poor, smallholder farmers into modern efficient value chains
APAC countries come together to set goals for food security

The conference will discuss why youth are not considering agriculture as a career. (Image Source: USAID Asia/FLICKR)
Governments from 46 Asia-Pacific countries have convened in Malaysia to consider corrective actions to safeguard the nutrition and well-being of this and future generations