food security

David Hodson, senior scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), sat down with FERN editor-in-chief Sam Fromartz in Washington to discuss the re-emergence of rust disease, a virulent fungal pathogen that attacks wheat plants and causes devastating crop losses, especially in poorer countries.

Drought in southern Africa has "significantly dampened production prospects, with severe negative implications for food security in the sub-region," says the FAO's quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report.

In response to the worst drought in a century, South Africa will relax some of its rules on importing GMO corn so it can ramp up supplies of the grain, says Reuters.

Legislation intended to make U.S. food assistance programs more efficient was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill includes the first-ever authorization of the Feed the Future, an Obama administration initiative to improve local food production.

Frugality is the only way to win praise when you receive public aid, says a University of British Columbia study of the intersection of thrift and pro-social choices.

Nearly 100 million people in southern Africa, Asia and Latin America face food and water shortages as well as vulnerable to diseases such as the Zika virus, says the Guardian, summarizing reports by international aid agencies and governments.

Alesha Black, who spent eight years working on agricultural development at the Gates Foundation, is the new director of the global food and agriculture portfolio at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, one of the most active think tanks on the topic.

Drought and excessive heat prevented farmers from planting a crop in much of South Africa's corn-growing region and the season is advancing; pollination and kernel-filling takes place in February and March in much of the country. USDA slashed its estimate of the nation's corn harvest to 8 million tonnes, down by one-third from a month ago and far below normal for South Africa, which normally supplies corn to other countries in its region.

Researchers say that over a four-decade period ending in 2007, the world lost a tenth of its cereal grain crops, such as rice, wheat and corn, due to droughts, heat waves and other extreme weather, reports the New York Times.

Hot weather and scanty rainfall are dimming the outlook for crops and livestock in southern Africa, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Some farmers have delayed sowing crops while waiting for rain while dry weather hurts emerging crops. "It's the sixth week of the cropping season now and there's not enough moisture in the soil," said an FAO official.

The "floating gardens" of Bangladesh and mountain farming in Japan are among four traditional farming systems declared "globally important agricultural heritage systems" by the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The founder of a rural development organization active in 11 countries, Fazle Hasan Abed of Bangladesh, is the winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize.

There are fewer food-insecure people in the low- and middle-income nations of the world, about 475 million, or 46 million less than last year, says the government.

While the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership and U.S.-EU trade pacts get the headlines, the African Growth and Opportunity Act also is due for action this year.

Around the globe, "food systems need to be more sustainable, inclusive and resilient," says the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In a speech in Paris, Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said...

"Markedly lower" rainfall is raising concern about the winter wheat and barley crops in North Korea, says the Washington Post. The winter grains supply only 5 percent of North Korea's food but are a vital bridge, the so-called barley hump, during the spring...

Purdue will re-name its 175-acre forestry farm in honor of long-time Indiana Sen Richard Lugar, the university announced. A former chairman of the Senate Agriculture and Foreign Relations committee, Lugar was senator for 36 years until...

President Xi Jinping has made food security a national priority since becoming China's leader a decade ago, with a multi-prong drive for self-sufficiency in food. It is "an improbable, if not impossible, goal," say analysts from the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in a brief.