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According to the World Bank, Malawi ranks among the countries in the world that are most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change, including exposure to drought, dry spells, and flooding. These extreme weather events can reduce the country’s agricultural production, threatening the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers and increasing food insecurity and poverty, especially in rural areas.

One of the first steps in increasing smallholder farmers’ market access is ensuring that rural areas have adequate transportation infrastructure to physically move crops from farms to markets. Improved rural roads can reduce transportation costs and the cost of agricultural inputs, thus increasing agricultural productivity; roads can also help integrate producers into more lucrative national and regional markets, leading to greater trade and reducing price shocks caused by local conditions.

Focusing on agricultural growth, particularly that of smallholder farmers, can help countries in Africa south of the Sahara achieve broader economic and development objectives, including poverty reduction, says a new open-access book prepared by the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) and published by Oxford Press.

FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning Systems (GIEWS) has released several new country briefs for Africa south of the Sahara. This series of briefs provides an overview of the food security situation in monitored countries, focusing on the current agricultural season, harvests prospects for staple food crops and livestock, estimates and forecasts of cereal production, and food price and food policy trends.

Ethiopia continues to face increased food insecurity, despite heavy rains in April that have improved prospects for the 2016 Belg harvest, according to the latest regional alert from FEWS Net.