This report summarizes results from qualitative research on a picture-based insurance solution to improve agricultural risk management. The reseachers conducted focus group discussions with 122 male and 77 female members of farming households in the state of Haryana in India.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on April 24, 2020, publishes the Insecticides (Second Amendment) Rules, 2020, to further amend the Insecticides Rules, 1971. The people covered under these rules shall apply for new registration of leaflets and labels within 90 days.

The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated on June 5, 2020. It seeks to provide for barrier-free trade of farmers’ produce outside the markets notified under the various state agricultural produce market laws (state APMC Acts). The Ordinance will prevail over state APMC Acts.

Coinciding with COVID-19, an upsurge of desert locusts is taking place in the Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula and Southwest Asia, with risk of spreading to the Sahel region of Africa if it is not stopped by July. The desert locust is the world's most dangerous migratory pest.

Farmers who planted genetically modified (GM) crops increased their incomes by almost $19 billion in 2018 and reduced carbon emissions by 23 billion kilograms or the equivalent of removing 15.3 million cars from the roads that year.

Rice farmers in the mid-hills region of Nepal are vulnerable to drought, which can drastically reduce yields.

Recent forecasts by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have indicated a risk of locust invasion in West Africa from June 2020. From East Africa, some swarms could reach the eastern part of the Sahel and continue westwards from Chad to Mauritania.

The March to May (MAM) rainfall period was one of the wettest the region has seen since 1981, following an already record wet 2019 October to December (OND) rainfall period.