Chinese and Indian farmers who have switched from synthetic fertilizers back to healthier traditional forms of organic farming have earned more and achieved a higher standard of living, but small farmers are often excluded from supportive government reform programmes, the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said today.

With Afghanistan's opium production having jumped last year 22 per cent to $3 billion in value and to 87 per cent of the world's illicit output, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will visit the Central Asian country this week to discuss ways of stopping the march towards an “opium economy.”

As the relief effort for the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster moves into its fifth week, United Nations agencies are producing topographical satellite maps to aid rehabilitation while raising the alarm for extra vigilance to avoid the further spread of AIDS through people forced into the sex trade because they have lost their other means of livelihood.

Beyond the horrific loss of human life, the recent Indian Ocean tsunami extensively damaged Indonesia's coastal environment, causing $675 million in losses to natural habitats and important ecosystem functions, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported today.