Does India’s rice market disruption threaten food security?
20/8/2023: The general election in India scheduled for the spring of 2024 has politicians’ eyes focused on stabilising staple food prices, a probable explanation of the rice export ban in July. It is uncertain if India, the current G20 chair, can provide leadership on calming an increasingly turbulent world food economy.
Source: East Asia Forum
We need a new recipe to combat hunger
7/8/2023: The UN has reported that 122 million more people are going hungry than in 2019, erasing years of progress. It’s time to admit that the industrial food system is starving people. Half the calories consumed around the world come from just three staple crops, shipped around the world by a handful of powerful trading firms. This is profitable, but it is not robust.
Source: Inter Press Service
Rice market in turmoil as India curtails exports
6/8/2023: Rice prices have soared to the highest in a decade as India limits exports and erratic weather wreaks havoc on Asian rice fields. This is likely to worsen food insecurity in many countries that rely on rice as a staple. Last year, India exported about 22 million tons of rice to 140 countries, comprising roughly 40% of the global cereal trade.
Source: DW
UN Security Council: Food insecurity tops agenda
3/8/2023: A draft communique presented by the US Secretary of State calls on the UN Security Council to "take action to end the use of food as a weapon of war." The collapse of the Black Sea grain deal poses a serious threat to the food security of many lower-income countries already grappling with hunger and economic crises.
Source: DW
How to mend the world’s broken food systems
24/7/2023: The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit launched a global drive to transform the way humanity grows, processes and transports food. Prior to the second summit, a senior official from the UN Environment Programme discusses mounting concerns about the planet’s long-term ability to feed a fast-growing human population.
Source: UN Environment Programme
How will the end of the Ukraine grain deal hurt Africa?
19/7/2023: Russia has quit a deal that allows the safe passage of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. Could this move exacerbate the hunger crisis in parts of Africa, a major wheat importer?
Source: DW
SDG hunger goal slumps further behind 2030 target
12/7/2023: The UN flagship global food security report has found that in 2022 between 691 million and 783 million people were hungry, 122 million more than in 2019 before the pandemic. The world is being pushed further away from meeting the UN's near hopeless goal to eliminate hunger by 2030.
Source: Devex
One year of the Black Sea Initiative: key facts
10/7/2023: For almost a year, the UN-brokered Black Sea Initiative agreed by Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine has allowed millions of tonnes of grain to leave Ukraine’s ports. The Initiative has helped reverse spiking global food prices, which reached record highs shortly before the agreement was signed.
Source: UN News
WFP funding crisis leaves millions without aid in West Africa
5/7/2023: Food insecurity has reached a 10-year high in West and Central Africa, affecting 47 million people during the June-August lean season. A funding crunch means that the World Food Programme will be able to assist just over half of those initially targeted. Mali and Chad will be hit the hardest.
Source: World Food Programme
Russia-Ukraine renew grain deal, but doubts persist
17/5/2023: The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal between Ukraine and Russia that allows for the continued export of grain and other food products has been extended for 60 days. Since the deal was introduced in July 2022, it has helped stabilize global food prices.
Source: DW