Agrifood systems are being tested like never before, threatening global food security, livelihoods, peace and stability.Investment is critical to transforming agrifood systems and “turning potential into progress,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu wrote in the Foreword to the AO Investment Centre’s Annual Review for 2025.The Annual Review – out today – offers a snapshot of the Centre’s work with its partners to accelerate the pace of change through more and better agrifood investment.

Whole plant bioassays showed insecticidal activity of transgenic plants, reaching 58% lethality for adults within 7 days and 75-90% lethality of nymphs after 25 days, compared to control plants. Target genes were confirmed to be downregulated by up to 2.5-fold in adult whiteflies and nymphs.

Africa has taken a major step toward strengthening access to credible biotechnology and biosafety information following the launch of a continental digital portal designed to make regulatory data easier to find, understand, and use.The portal, dubbed the Biotech Africa Database platform, provides country-specific information on biotech crop approval decisions and summaries of key regulatory requirements for import, export, and transit of biotech products. It also offers, at a glance, a guide to application processes for the movement of biotech products across borders.