NEW YORK, 27 June 2008 (IRIN) - The worst floods in the Midwest in 15 years have helped maize prices surge to unprecedented levels, leading to calls for Washington to release more conservation land for cultivation and to reduce minimum ethanol production requirements.

But in a sign of the nervousness of a food commodities market already traumatised by relentlessly soaring prices, the latest hike came before any clear production figures were released.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA more...

ROME, 3 June 2008 (IRIN) - At least seven countries - almost all in Africa - are rated as highly vulnerable to rising food costs, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Gambia, Liberia, Mauritania, Niger, Zimbabwe, and Jordan and Moldova - which have all chalked up high levels of debt - could be forced to spend as much as two percent of their gross domestic product on importing food. Most of these countries are already struggling with chronic hunger, so soaring food cost more...

Meeting our growing need for food and energy will require innovation across a range of food sectors; fisheries and aquaculture provide one powerful example of the benefits.

Bina Roy is a busy woman. Not only does she juggle the multiple demands of a wife, mother, farmer and fisher, she is also Secretary of the Malihat Beel village fisheries management committee. Over the course of the past six years Mrs Roy has led efforts to improve management of the local fishery, increase fish production, more...

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...