Although global food supplies are robust, the world faces “an unprecedented situation” of four threats of famine in multiple countries simultaneously, says the assistant director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
The UN has declared famine in South Sudan. Food security conditions are also grave in northern Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, said FAO in releasing its quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. FAO Assistant Director-General Kostas Stamoulis said the countries need immediate food aid along with livelihood support to prevent conditions from worsening.
The food situation report said 37 countries require food aid, 28 of them in Africa, “as a result of lingering effects of last year’s El Niño-triggered droughts on harvests in 2016. Yet, while agricultural production is expected to rebound in southern Africa, protracted fighting and unrest is increasing the ranks of the displaced and hungry in other parts of the world.”
Separately, the FAO said its Food Price Index rose by 0.5 percent in February, “marking its seventh consecutive monthly rise, led by increasing wheat and maize prices.” In its first forecast of this year’s world wheat crop, FAO projected a crop of 744.5 million tonnes, down by 1.8 percent from the record set in 2016. The decline would be led by a markedly smaller U.S. crop.