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Rwanda’s Fourth Strategic Plan for Agricultural Transformation (PSTA IV) presents an ambitious plan to dramatically change the country’s agricultural sector and rural economy. Released in 2018, the plan forms a critical component of Vision 2050, which envisions Rwanda’s transformation into an upper middle income country by 2035 and a high income country by 2050.

This post originally appeared on the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security blog.

The FAO Food Price Index continued to rise in January for the fourth consecutive month. While the month-on-month increase from December was marginal (0.7 percent), the Index reached 11.3 percent higher than its January 2019 levels. The increase was driven mainly by vegetable oil prices, although cereal prices also played a role to a lesser extent.

Climate change is almost certain to increase the volatility of agricultural output over the next 30 years—particularly in low-income countries in Africa south of the Sahara and other areas around the world where subsistence farming is a major source of food production. Climate-driven impacts such as droughts and extreme weather events will raise the risk of severe food shortages for smallholder farms and in rural and urban communities throughout those countries.

Strong rebounds in global vegetable oil prices, as well as sugar and dairy prices, drove the FAO Food Price Index to its highest point in five years in December. The December Index rose by 4.4. percent from November, the third such consecutive monthly increase, and reached 181.7 points.