Eldis, the British portal on development issues. provides this regularly updated dossier on food security.

After more than three decades of relatively stable nominal food prices on the world markets during the years 1974-2005 and a gradual decline in their real price by an astounding 75%, largely as an effect of the decline in the world price of grains, a combination of several factors since 2005 brought a sharp increase in food and feed prices at accelerating rates that reached crisis proportion in mid-2007.
Several factors have contributed to the rise in the price of grains and other food product more...

APA-Maputo: (Mozambique) Mozambique has announced its plans to have an organic fertilizer processing industry by the start of the 2008/09 agricultural campaign, a top official to APA on Sunday.

Agriculture Minister, Soares Nhaca said such an industry would reduce the price of fertilizer, as well as the need for imports.

New study on biofuel production focuses on gender: Rapid increases in the large-scale production of liquid biofuels in developing countries could exacerbate the marginalization of women in rural areas threatening their livelihoods, according to a new FAO study.

The study notes that large-scale plantations for the production of liquid biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel require an intensive use of resources and inputs to which small farmers, particularly women, traditionally have limited more...

Securing world food security in light of the impact of climate change may be one of the biggest challenges we face in this century.

An estimated 850 million people in the world today suffer from hunger. Of those, about 820 million live in developing countries, the very countries expected to be most affected by climate change. Governments, international organizations, civil society, the private sector and other actors, must work together to address these challenges and to devise appropriate st more...

Production and consumption of farm products are expanding faster in developing countries than in developed economies. But a new joint report by the OECD and FAO says productivity growth in the world's poorest nations is not keeping pace with the food needs of their rising populations.

Because of this, the poorest developing countries will be increasingly dependent on world markets for their food security and so more vulnerable to price fluctuations in world markets, according to the report, O more...

The UN secretary general said he would head a special taskforce to address food shortages and price rises around the world.

Ban Ki-moon said the move was an attempt to avert "social unrest on an unprecedented scale".

Convening a crisis meeting of world leaders in June, he also appeared to criticise the international community's response to the crisis.

He said people had not heeded warnings from the UN's food and agriculture organisation (FAO), amongst other bodies.

"The first and imm more...

UN INFORMATION SERVICE 29 April 2008

GENEVA



Bilingual Transcript of Statements by Secretary-General, Heads of Concerned Agencies, and Response to Questions at Press Conference on Global Food Crisis



Following is a transcript of the remarks by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Foof and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf, World Bank President, Robert Zoellick, and World Trade Organization Director-General, Pascal Lamy, made at a press conference i more...

The World Trade Organization's Doha Round of trade talks has been plagued by a lack of concrete progress toward establishing a fair and harmonious agricultural trading system. Because the results of the Doha Round could have far-reaching implications for the trade and economic prospects of developing countries in the twenty-first century, it is critical for these countries to fully understand the issues involved in the negotiations on agriculture. However, there has been no authoritative analysi more...

In sub-Saharan Africa, the region hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the thrust to bring antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to the 3.8 million people who need them has tended to overshadow all other treatment efforts.

The reality on the ground is that only five percent of those who qualify for the life-prolonging medicines are so far receiving them.

The World Health Organisation is pushing to increase access with its "3 by 5" initiative, which aims to have three million people in developing cou more...