What's New

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.

While drought continues to threaten food security and livelihoods throughout southern Africa and the Horn of Africa, some areas have seen increased rainfall in recent weeks, according to the latest FEWS Net Global Weather Hazards Summary .

A new book by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) , with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) , examines the stability pillar of FAO’s four pillars of food security , focusing specifically on price volatility and extreme price events in food markets.

Agricultural risk poses a significant challenge for Malawi, in terms of both its food security and its overall economic development. Looking at two studies conducted in 2014 and 2015 in collaboration with the Government of Malawi, a 2015 World Bank Agricultural Global Practice Note examines the major risks facing Malawian agriculture, how those risks could hurt both individuals and the country as a whole, and what potential steps could be taken to better guard against agricultural losses.

Common wisdom holds that rising price volatility in international food markets has translated into higher food price volatility in developing countries, particularly in Africa. This seems to be a logical assumption, as most African countries are net food importers, but is it actually the case? Not necessarily, according to a 2013 research brief by IFPRI researcher Nicholas Minot.