Blog Category

Food Prices

Tracking Fertilizer Price Volatility: Expanding the Food Security Portal’s Excessive Food Price Variability Early Warning System

May 31st, 2025 • by Manuel A. Hernandez, Feng Yao, and Soonho Kim

Fertilizer is a critical input for agricultural productivity, and its increased use has been closely associated with rising agricultural yields in many countries. In developing economies that rely heavily on fertilizer imports and are home to vulnerable smallholder farmers, fertilizer price spikes can pose serious risks. When farmers lack access to effective risk-sharing mechanisms, sudden or excessive increases in fertilizer prices can discourage adoption, disrupt planting decisions, and reduce productivity.

Policies to Reduce High-Risk Coping Mechanisms: Evidence from Mali

Mar 2nd, 2025 • by Sara Gustafson

How households respond to systemic shocks—food price volatility, seasonal fluctuations in agricultural production, conflict, pandemics, and extreme weather events—can play an important role in long-term food security, economic stability, and resilience at both the household and the societal level. A new project paper from the CGIAR Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration finds that in Mali, the coping mechanisms households resort to in the face of such shocks are often high-risk and reactionary.

Drought, conflict and high food prices risk pushing 4.4 million people into hunger, the Federal Government of Somalia and UN warn

Mar 1st, 2025 • by FAO Regional Office for Africa

New data from Somalia shows that 4.4 million people could face hunger by April 2025, driven by worsening drought conditions, conflict and high food prices. 

The Federal Government of Somalia and the United Nations agencies warn that without funding for humanitarian action, the country - which in 2022 was pushed to the brink of famine by severe drought, resulting in thousands of deaths, with nearly half being children – millions could once again face deepening hunger.  

Conflict Continues to Drive Food Crisis in Congo

Jul 9th, 2024 • by Sara Gustafson

Forty percent of the population of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently facing IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or above food insecurity, according to a new IPC country report. Continuing conflict, extreme weather events and other natural disasters, and displacement of large swathes of the population have all contributed to protracted food insecurity in the country.