Flooding persists in Central Asia; droughts remain in Southern Africa
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16Droughts remain in Southern Africa, while flooding persists in Eastern Africa
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16UK facing food shortages and price rises after extreme weather
Heavy rain likely to cause low yields in Britain and other parts of Europe, with drought in Morocco hitting imports
The UK faces food shortages and price rises as extreme weather linked to climate breakdown causes low yields on farms locally and abroad.
Record rainfall has meant farmers in many parts of the UK have been unable to plant crops such as potatoes, wheat and vegetables during the key spring season. Crops that have been planted are of poor quality, with some rotting in the ground.
Continue reading...Covid pandemic made poorest countries even worse off, World Bank warns
Poverty reduction drive all but halted across many nations as Bank calls for more money to tackle a ‘great reversal’
The devastating impact of the pandemic on the world’s poorest countries has brought poverty reduction to a halt and led to a widening income gap with nations in the rich west, the World Bank has warned.
In a report released to coincide with its half-yearly meeting, the Washington-based organisation said half of the world’s 75 poorest nations had seen income per head rise more slowly than in developed countries over the past five years.
Continue reading...New Study: Urgent action to enhance food aid and revitalize agriculture critical to averting looming famine in Sudan
Livelihoods in Sudan Amid Armed Conflict: Evidence from a National Rural Household Survey
Food Assistance Outlook Brief, March 2024
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9Food Assistance Outlook Brief, February 2024
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9IFPRI and Government of Vietnam sign MoU to support sustainable agriculture and rural development
April 11, 2024, Hanoi, Vietnam: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today in Hanoi. IFPRI’s delegation was received at Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. IFPRI’s Director General, Johan Swinnen, and IPSARD’s Director General, Tran Cong Thang, signed the MoU on behalf of their organizations.
Re-imagining Africa’s food security within the context of climate change and ecological sustainability
This press-release was initially published by WWF on December 12, 2023.
NITI Aayog and IFPRI sign Statement of Intent to strengthen policy frameworks for agricultural transformation and rural development
This press release was distributed by the Press Information Bureau, Government of India
The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) signed a Statement of Intent (SoI), aiming to fortify policy and program frameworks contributing to India's developmental objectives.
CGIAR and partners launch Innovation Sprint on Gender and Climate Action
December 3, 2023, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). CGIAR and partners have committed US$31 million over four years (2023-2027) to ensure that climate innovations in agrifood systems are designed to work for women and rolled out in ways that address underlying gender inequalities.
Together with 20 partners, CGIAR launched the AIM for Climate Innovation Sprint on Addressing Gender Inequality for Effective Climate Action in Agrifood Systems today in Dubai, UAE.
The IPC expands global partnership to further tackle food insecurity and malnutrition – IFPRI, UNDP, World Bank and WHO
November 16, 2023, Rome — The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative reaches a new milestone today as it expands its global partnership to include four new partners – the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO) – and establishes a High Level Executive Committee (HLEC).
Remembering Professor Saleemul Huq
The International Food Policy Research Institute is deeply saddened by the passing of Professor Saleemul Huq, a pioneering climate scientist from Bangladesh. Prof. Huq passed away in Dhaka on October 28, 2023, at the age of 71. We are grateful for the collaboration we enjoyed with Prof. Huq on topics related to the nexus of food systems and climate change.
International Food Policy Research Institute welcomes Pascal Lamy as New Chair of the Board of Trustees
October 19, 2023, Washington, D.C. –The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is pleased to announce that Pascal Lamy will begin his term as Chairperson of IFPRI’s Board of Trustees on 31 October 2023.
Remembering Professor Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan
The International Food Policy Research Institute deeply mourns the passing of Professor Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, the world-renowned agricultural scientist, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Mentor, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. M.S. Swaminathan passed away in Chennai, India, on September 28, 2023, at the age of 98.
Prof. M.S. Swaminathan’s contributions to agriculture, genetics, plant breeding, and food policy have left an indelible mark on the world, and his legacy will continue to inspire generations to come.
Pork labelling schemes ‘not helpful’ in making informed buying choices, say researchers
Researchers have evaluated different types of pig farming – including woodland, organic, free range, RSPCA assured, and Red Tractor certified, to assess each systems’ impact across four areas: land use (representing biodiversity loss), greenhouse gas emissions, antibiotics use and animal welfare. Their study concludes that none of the farm types performed consistently well across all four areas – a finding that has important implications for increasingly climate conscious consumers, as well as farmers themselves.
However, there were individual farms that did perform well in all domains, including an indoor Red Tractor farm, an outdoor bred, indoor finished RSPCA assured farm and fully outdoor woodland farm. “Outliers like these show that trade-offs are not inevitable,” said lead author Dr Harriet Bartlett, Research Associate at the University of Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, who was formerly at the University of Cambridge.
“Somewhat unexpectedly we found that a handful of farms perform far better than average across all four of our environmental and welfare measures,” added senior author Andrew Balmford, Professor of Conservation Science at the University of Cambridge. However, none of the current label or assurance schemes predicted which farms these would be.
“The way we classify farm types and label pork isn’t helpful for making informed decisions when it comes to buying more sustainable meat. Even more importantly, we aren’t rewarding and incentivising the best-performing farmers. Instead of focusing on farm types or practices, we need to focus on meaningful outcomes for people, the planet and the pigs – and assess, and reward farms based on these,” said Bartlett.
The findings also show that common assumptions around food labelling can be misplaced. For instance, Organic farming systems, which consumers might see as climate and environmentally friendly, have on average three times the CO2 output per kg of meat of more intensive Red Tractor or RSPCA assured systems and four times the land use. However, these same systems use on average almost 90% fewer antibiotic medicines, and result in improved animal welfare compared with production from Red tractor or RSPCA assured systems.
The way we classify livestock farms must be improved, Bartlett says, because livestock production is growing rapidly, especially pork production, which has quadrupled in the past 50 years and already accounts for 9% of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock. Pig farming also uses more antibiotics than any other livestock sector, and 8.5% of all arable land.
“Our findings show that mitigating the environmental impacts of livestock farming isn’t a case of saying which farm type is the best,” said Bartlett. “There is substantial scope for improvement within types, and our current means of classification is not identifying the best farms for the planet and animals overall. Instead, we need to identify farms that successfully limit their impacts across all areas of societal concern, and understand, promote and incentivise their practises.”
The study reached its conclusions using data from 74 UK and 17 Brazilian breed-to-finish systems, each made up of 1-3 farms and representing the annual production of over 1.2 million pigs. It is published today in the journal Nature Food.
“To the best of our knowledge, our dataset covers by far the largest and most diverse sample of pig production systems examined in any single study,” said Bartlett.
James Wood, Professor of Equine and Farm Animal Science at the University of Cambridge, commented: “This important study identifies a key need to clarify what different farm labels should indicate to consumers; there is a pressing need to extend this work into other farming sectors. It also clearly demonstrates the critical importance that individual farmers play in promoting best practice across all farming systems.”
Trade-offs in the externalities of pig production are not inevitable was authored by academics at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and the University of São Paulo.
The research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
Reference: Bartlett, H.,‘Trade-offs in the externalities of pig production are not inevitable.’ Nature Food, April 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s43016-024-00921-2
Adapted from a press release by the University of Oxford.
Farmers don’t have to choose between lowering environmental impact and improving welfare for their pigs, a new study has found: it is possible to do both. But this is not reflected in the current food labelling schemes relied on by consumers.
The way we classify farm types and label pork isn’t helpful for making informed decisions when it comes to buying more sustainable meat.Harriet BartlettCharity Burggraaf/ GettyTwo pigs on a farm
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.
Pork labelling schemes ‘not helpful’ in making informed buying choices, say researchers
Researchers have evaluated different types of pig farming – including woodland, organic, free range, RSPCA assured, and Red Tractor certified, to assess each systems’ impact across four areas: land use (representing biodiversity loss), greenhouse gas emissions, antibiotics use and animal welfare. Their study concludes that none of the farm types performed consistently well across all four areas – a finding that has important implications for increasingly climate conscious consumers, as well as farmers themselves.
However, there were individual farms that did perform well in all domains, including an indoor Red Tractor farm, an outdoor bred, indoor finished RSPCA assured farm and fully outdoor woodland farm. “Outliers like these show that trade-offs are not inevitable,” said lead author Dr Harriet Bartlett, Research Associate at the University of Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, who was formerly at the University of Cambridge.
“Somewhat unexpectedly we found that a handful of farms perform far better than average across all four of our environmental and welfare measures,” added senior author Andrew Balmford, Professor of Conservation Science at the University of Cambridge. However, none of the current label or assurance schemes predicted which farms these would be.
“The way we classify farm types and label pork isn’t helpful for making informed decisions when it comes to buying more sustainable meat. Even more importantly, we aren’t rewarding and incentivising the best-performing farmers. Instead of focusing on farm types or practices, we need to focus on meaningful outcomes for people, the planet and the pigs – and assess, and reward farms based on these,” said Bartlett.
The findings also show that common assumptions around food labelling can be misplaced. For instance, Organic farming systems, which consumers might see as climate and environmentally friendly, have on average three times the CO2 output per kg of meat of more intensive Red Tractor or RSPCA assured systems and four times the land use. However, these same systems use on average almost 90% fewer antibiotic medicines, and result in improved animal welfare compared with production from Red tractor or RSPCA assured systems.
The way we classify livestock farms must be improved, Bartlett says, because livestock production is growing rapidly, especially pork production, which has quadrupled in the past 50 years and already accounts for 9% of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock. Pig farming also uses more antibiotics than any other livestock sector, and 8.5% of all arable land.
“Our findings show that mitigating the environmental impacts of livestock farming isn’t a case of saying which farm type is the best,” said Bartlett. “There is substantial scope for improvement within types, and our current means of classification is not identifying the best farms for the planet and animals overall. Instead, we need to identify farms that successfully limit their impacts across all areas of societal concern, and understand, promote and incentivise their practises.”
The study reached its conclusions using data from 74 UK and 17 Brazilian breed-to-finish systems, each made up of 1-3 farms and representing the annual production of over 1.2 million pigs. It is published today in the journal Nature Food.
“To the best of our knowledge, our dataset covers by far the largest and most diverse sample of pig production systems examined in any single study,” said Bartlett.
James Wood, Professor of Equine and Farm Animal Science at the University of Cambridge, commented: “This important study identifies a key need to clarify what different farm labels should indicate to consumers; there is a pressing need to extend this work into other farming sectors. It also clearly demonstrates the critical importance that individual farmers play in promoting best practice across all farming systems.”
Trade-offs in the externalities of pig production are not inevitable was authored by academics at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and the University of São Paulo.
The research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
Reference: Bartlett, H.,‘Trade-offs in the externalities of pig production are not inevitable.’ Nature Food, April 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s43016-024-00921-2
Adapted from a press release by the University of Oxford.
Farmers don’t have to choose between lowering environmental impact and improving welfare for their pigs, a new study has found: it is possible to do both. But this is not reflected in the current food labelling schemes relied on by consumers.
The way we classify farm types and label pork isn’t helpful for making informed decisions when it comes to buying more sustainable meat.Harriet BartlettCharity Burggraaf/ GettyTwo pigs on a farm
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.
Food Assistance Outlook Brief, April 2024
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9Droughts persist in southern Africa while flooding continues in most parts of eastern Africa
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16March 2024 Global Price Watch
- In West Africa, staple food prices showed mixed trends in February. In the Sahel region, prices were stable or declined due to seasonal harvests but remained high due to supply constraints and high demand. Nigeria registered a record annual inflation rate driven by currency depreciation and the lasting effects of reduced fuel subsidies. Looking ahead, prices across the region are expected to rise in March and beyond as household stocks dwindle, demand for Ramadan increases, and transportation costs remain elevated.
- In East Africa, staple food prices declined in most markets in February due to increased seasonal supplies. In Sudan, however, conflict and currency depreciation drove up marketing costs and increased prices for coarse grains. Regional livestock prices were mixed due to varying water and feed availability. Staple prices are expected to increase across the region due to the impacts of currency depreciation and elevated marketing costs. Livestock prices are expected to remain high, driven by increased demand for Ramadan.
- In Southern Africa, staple grain prices increased in several major markets due to seasonal stock declines and high production costs. Zambia and Zimbabwe faced tight supplies and currency weakness, leading to maize price increases. Malawi and DRC, however, saw seasonal price drops for maize due to green harvest supply. Due to the anticipated impacts of the ongoing strong El Niño on maize harvests, seasonal price declines are expected to be muted. Due to higher import and energy costs, inflation will likely accelerate in the coming months.
- In Central America, white maize prices were stable in February. Red bean prices declined for the second consecutive month supported by delayed postrera 2023 harvest and small volumes from the ongoing main season (apante). Black beans prices were stable as staggered and delayed postrera tardia harvest did not compensate for previous local production declines. In Haiti, violence intensified severely disrupting market operations and pressing prices upwards. In Venezuela, monthly inflation continued to ease and the VED marginally appreciated, supporting food price stability in local currency.
- In Central Asia, the export prices of milling wheat in Kazakhstan were stable due to ample supply and declining global prices. The prices of both high -and low-quality rice, and wheat flour remained stable in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Yemen, prices were stable in SBA-areas and mixed in IRG-areas where wheat flour prices were up six percent.
- International staple food markets were sufficiently supplied. Global staple food prices remained relatively stable, despite external disruptions such as shipping delays and farmer protests in Europe. Export prices for wheat, maize, and soybeans continued to decrease, reaching their lowest point in the past two years. Although rice prices softened to reduced trade activity during the Lunar New Year holidays, they remained about a third higher than a year ago.
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