Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Qu Dongyu on Tuesday called for a coordinated policy response to address the impact of the crisis in the Gulf region on global agri-food systems.
Speaking at the 180th Session of the FAO Council, Qu said that peace and stability are prerequisites for food security, and the right to food is a fundamental human right.
The closure of key maritime routes has been disrupting global agricultural food systems, leading to severe interruptions in the supply of energy, fertilizers and agricultural inputs, he noted.
Qu stressed that coordinated policy responses are urgently needed.
Emergency measures, including developing alternative trade routes, strengthening market monitoring, avoiding export restrictions on energy and fertilizers, and providing financial support to farmers, will be taken over the next 90 days, Qu said.
In the medium-term, diversifying import sources and supporting vulnerable countries through emergency food aid should be the focus, while long-term strategies should make sustainable agriculture and renewable energy investments a priority, he noted.
The FAO has launched several initiatives, including real-time tracking of shipping and freight rate changes, collaborating with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to prevent panic buying, developing alternative transport routes for perishable goods, and prioritizing fertilizer allocation to low-income, landlocked developing countries.
FAO calls for coordinated policy responses to crisis in Gulf region
Chinese scientists announced Monday that they have achieved a breakthrough in yak cloning, with 10 cloned calves all naturally delivered in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.
These calves, consisting of three black yaks and seven white ones, were born from March 25 to April 5 at a yak breeding and research base in Xizang's Damxung County, all meeting expected standards and steadily gaining weight.
The mass births came after the first cloned yak was born in July 2025, which has grown healthily and weighs about 183 kg now.
The achievement was made using a domestically developed breeding system that combines whole-genome selection with somatic cell cloning, following three years of research by a Chinese scientific team.
"Whole-genome selection can accurately pinpoint excellent genetic loci associated with large body size, fast growth, strong fecundity and disease resistance, high feed conversion efficiency, and tolerance to high-altitude and low-oxygen conditions (cold resistance). On this basis, somatic cell cloning enables 1:1 precise replication of the genotype through asexual rapid propagation (cloning), thereby compressing the breeding cycle to within five years," said Fang Shengguo, a professor at the College of Life Sciences at Zhejiang University and director of the State Conservation Center for Gene Resources of Endangered Wildlife.
Yak farming is one of the key industries targeted for development in Xizang during the country's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030). Traditional yak breeding has relied on phenotype selection, a process that can take up to 20 years and often leads to declining genetic quality.
Researchers said the new method can shorten the breeding cycle to less than five years by accurately identifying desirable genetic traits such as faster growth, disease resistance, feed efficiency and adaptation to high-altitude, low-oxygen environments, while enabling rapid replication of elite breeding stock.
Experts added that the technology could also support conservation efforts for rare yak genetic resources, including the endangered golden wild yak, whose population in Xizang is estimated at more than 300.
So far, the research team has developed more than 200 cloned embryos of golden wild yaks and hybrid wild-blood yaks, laying the groundwork for future embryo transfer and species recovery programs.
China achieves large-scale births of cloned yaks
