The number of people facing acute food insecurity, requiring urgent life-saving food assistance and livelihood support, continues to grow at an alarming rate, according to this new joint UN report.

This review provides evidence that COVID-19 is associated with food insecurity both ex-ante and ex-durante. There are many attempts to suggest this relationship may be causal with some robust methods in some contexts, but data limitations prevail which constrains causal learning.

Urbanization is transforming food systems across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in conjunction with other dynamics such as rising average welfare. Where overall food demand is projected to increase approximately 2.5-fold in sub-Saharan Africa and 1.7-fold in South Asia, urban demand will rise two to four times more.

Without urgent action, 35 million people in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger will have virtually no food to eat during the next lean season, according to Sahel: Averting Another Historic Food Crisis, a new report from Action Against Hunger.

Acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 20 countries or situations – hunger hotspots - during the outlook period of February to May 2022.

The Horn of Africa is facing the third severe La Niña‑induced drought episode in a decade, and the region is on the verge of a catastrophe if humanitarian assistance is not urgently scaled up.

This Report of the Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution deals with the action taken by the Government on the recommendations/observations contained in the Eleventh Report of the Committee (17th Lok Sabha) on the subject ‘Price Rise of Essential Commodities - Causes & Effects’ pertaining to the Ministry of Cons

The COVID-19 situation in the country continued to improve leading to the government relaxing most restrictive measures in early September, which enabled households to resume livelihood activities. Although vaccination rates have reduced, they still remain among the highest in Africa.

The main shocks reported by interviewed households included dry spells, high food prices, sickness or death of household members, loss of income, pests and diseases affecting both crops and livestock, and high fuel prices.

Global food trade has accelerated and is poised to hit an all-time record in both volume and value terms, according to this new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). By the end of 2021, the global food import bill should extend beyond $1.75 trillion, marking a 14 per cent increase from the previous year, and 12 per cent higher than the previous forecast.