What's New

For the second month in a row, the FAO Food Price Index rose on sharp increases in dairy prices and marginal increases in meat. The Index averaged 215.5 points in April, up 2 points from March. At this level, the Index is only 9 points below its highest level, seen in February 2011.

Coffee crops throughout Central America are being hit hard by a widespread fungal infection known as coffee leaf rust. The outbreak of the disease, which begins by attacking the leaves and can eventually kill the entire coffee plant, could lower the region's total coffee harvest by as much as 20 percent in 2013. The loss is expected to reach a whopping US$600 million in value.

Fertilizer is a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving agricultural yields in developing countries. Despite widespread recognition of fertilizer's importance, however, many African farmers use substantially less fertilizer than their counterparts in Latin America and Asia. A new article in IFPRI's Insights Magazine examines why this is so, and how increasing competition in the global fertilizer market could help close the gap.

After being largely eliminated by structural adjustment programs in the 1980s and 1990s, large-scale input subsidy programs are regaining popularity throughout the developing world, particularly in Africa south of the Sahara. It's estimated that African countries spend, on average, 30 percent of their agriculture budgets on these programs, which aim to increase small farmers' investments in new technologies and increase agricultural production. Despite these programs' widespread use, however, debate abounds about how efficient input subsidy programs actually are.

Asia is a region characterized by unique agricultural and economic opportunities and challenges. In recent years, many Asian countries have made great strides in transforming their agricultural systems and reducing their numbers of poor and malnourished. Despite this progress, however, the region remains home to most of the world's poor and hungry, and faces additional challenges in the form of environmental degradation and climate change.