What's New

This week is the World Bank’s annual conference on development economics. One of the papers being presented is by my colleague Kate Orkin (together with co-authors Tanguy Bernard, Stefan Dercon and Alemayehu Taffesse) and takes a look at a video intervention and its impact on aspirations among poor folks in Ethiopia. In particular, what Kate and her co-authors are asking is: can we shift aspirations and behavior by showing people more of what is possible?

The May edition of the FAO Monthly News Report on Grains was released last week. The report covers ongoing global and regional trends in grain prices and policies. This month's edition covers above-average US wheat sales, increased wheat production expectations in India, and the impact that El Nino could have on crops.

The FAO Monthly News Report on Grains series provides a collection of news articles from international media and news sources on issues relating to the international grain economy. These reports also include statistics and upcoming events.

So-called "food riots" have gotten a lot of attention in recent years, but what role do food and food prices actually play in violent demonstrations and conflicts? The May issue of the World Bank Food Price Watch finds that the relationship between food and violence takes several forms, involving not only food prices but also food supplies and competition over agricultural and infrastructure resources.

Resilience must mean more than simply bouncing back from negative shocks: that is the message from last week's 2020 Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The conference, themed "Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security," provided a new definition of resilience, one that focuses on empowering individuals, households, and communities to become better off than they were before the shocks occurred.

Global food prices dropped slowly in April, led by sharp declines in dairy products, sugar, and vegetable oils, according to the latest FAO Food Price Index. The Index fell 1.6 percent from March.

By contrast, the Cereal Price Index rose in April by one point. However, cereal prices remain well below (10.3 percent below) their April 2013 levels. The Meat Price Index also rose in April, with pig meat prices rising and bovine meat prices near historic highs.