At Tokyo Convention on African Improvement, Ministers Spotlight Affect of IAEA Initiatives

In Africa, meals safety challenges are rising in 2024, with roughly 20 per cent of the African inhabitants — 307 million folks — experiencing starvation final 12 months, in response to the 2025 version of the SOFI report which was printed in July 2025 in Addis Ababa in the course of the UNFSS+4 occasion.

The panel dialogue on meals and agriculture featured representatives of Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Kanya and FAO, who described the advantages of the joint FAO-IAEA Atoms4Food initiative. Launched by the 2 organizations in 2023 based mostly on the longstanding partnership by the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, the Atoms4Food initiative goals to supply options tailor-made to every nation’s agrifood system’s wants. 

Atoms4Food evaluation missions assist nations to map their meals safety wants and develop a plan to deal with recognized challenges. Under the Atoms4Food initiative, the IAEA, along with FAO, helps nations to make use of nuclear and isotopic methods in six key areas: crop selection enchancment, soil and water administration and crop diet, animal manufacturing and well being, insect pest management, meals security and management and public well being diet.

“In Burkina Faso, as part of the Atoms4Food initiative, eight high-yield rice varieties were developed and included in the national variety catalogue. As well, the analysis laboratories were reinforced with various materials and equipment, thus enhancing their performance,” defined Amadou Dicko, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Animal Resources and Fisheries, Burkina Faso. He expressed appreciation to the primary nation evaluation of Atoms4Food in Burkina Faso, which laid the inspiration for a profitable implementation of built-in tasks.