The monthly Agro-meteorology bulletin provides information about the
agricultural season in Southern Sudan. Its emphasis is mainly on rainfall performance and its implication for rangeland. The agricultural season has a huge impact on the food security of households that depend on agriculture.

The number of malnourished people around the world is estimated to rise to nearly one billion this year as the economic crisis takes its toll on developing countries.

How to ensure food security for the world’s poor both during the current crisis and over the long-term was the subject of a high-level meeting organized jointly by the OECD and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Some of the key questions about food security are answered in this article

Human Development Index (HDI) has become a very useful tool for measuring
development and making inter-country comparisons. The observation of its trajectory
and evolution by country arouses the curiosity of students of development and invites
them to question the underlying causes of the behaviour of the index. In order to
provide answers to such questions the Human Development Report complements the
HDI by offering varied, valuable and relevant statistical information related with every
more...

The fourth issue of FAO's e-newsletter on Climate Change and Food Security published on the occasion of the FAO Committee on Agriculture. This update includes announcements of FAO's upcoming events on climate change, information on the outcomes of various international meetings, such as the Climate Change talks in Bonn, Germany, the UN-REDD programme's first policy board meeting and other conferences held with FAO's participation. Special focus is given to climate change adaptation in Bangladesh more...

In 2004–05, Niger suffered a food crisis during which global attention focused on high levels of acute malnutrition among children. In response, decentralised emergency nutrition programmes were introduced into much of southern Niger. Child malnutrition, however, is a chronic problem and its links with food production and household food security are complex. This qualitative, anthropological study investigates pathways by which children are rendered vulnerable in the context of a nutritional ' more...

Brazil is on track to achieve many of the Millennium Development Goals, and this is widely credited to bold and innovative government policies backed by new forms of popular participation in social policy. This article examines evaluation evidence on two of the most important recent initiatives in Brazil's policies for food and nutrition security (conditional cash transfers through Bolsa Família and support for family agriculture through the Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos). It also consid more...

'The impact of food insecurity on the Asia-Pacific region and how to deal with it is the focus of an ESCAP study entitled Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Asia and the Pacific. The study examines the environmental, economic and social challenges that are the roots of the region’s food insecurity and suggests a regional framework of action to be taken by governments and the international community in order to create greater food security.'

'Early indications point to a reduction in global cereal output in 2009 from the previous years record. Smaller plantings and/or adverse weather look likely to bring grain production down in most of the worlds major producers.'
Source: FAO

Agriculture and rural development must play a central role in stimulating economic growth, reducing poverty, and improving food and nutrition security in Africa. Precisely how Sub-Saharan African countries should allocate public spending on agricultural and rural development is often unclear, however. This brief from IFPRI, an international food policy research organization, draws on case studies from both Africa and Asia in order to shed light on the contributions different types of spending ma more...

Improving the livelihoods of the rural poor requires combining indigenous knowledge and local innovation with formal agricultural research and development and support from governments and other institutions. This brief from IFPRI, an international food policy research organization, outlines how formal and informal knowledge and innovation can be linked to accelerate sustainable agricultural development. The brief identifies such necessary steps as scaling up investments in agricultural science, more...