Food Crisis and Related Risk Factors

Three consecutive years of progress in reducing global hunger demonstrate that hunger is not inevitable, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, said Tuesday at the launch of the 2026 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report.According to the SOFI report, an estimated 645 million people (7.8 percent of the global population) faced hunger in 2025. This represents nearly 14 million fewer people than in 2024 and 43 million fewer than at the 2022 peak.Food insecurity also improved substantially.

The Gaza Strip has seen some gains in food security and nutrition security since the October 2025 ceasefire was declared, thanks mostly to scaled-up humanitarian efforts. However, aid levels have fallen again since February, and the number of people in acute food insecurity is on the rise again, according to a new IPC alert.   Since October 2025, in-kind food aid and cash assistance have reached millions of people throughout the Gaza Strip. In addition, commercial imports have resumed, although they remain below the levels seen before the conflict broke out.

Key takeaways Developing countries are highly exposed to impacts from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, IFPRI economic modeling shows.Poverty and food insecurity rise modestly in percentage terms, but absolute numbers show a significant impact, with about 20 million more people in poverty and 2.5 million more facing undernourishment.Broader economic impacts are limited but uneven. GDP declines are generally small, but agriculture and supply chains face stronger pressures. The economic impacts flowing from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz continue to reverberate, ra

The critical supply chain for fertilizer in combination with rising energy and transport costs will be felt most by poorer countries and households. Whether this develops into a veritable food crisis will depend on how the war procedes.The Iran war has disrupted critical supply chains and driven up the cost of energy and fertilizer, both essential agricultural inputs, sparking fears of another global food crisis.

Key takeaways Policy decisions by fertilizer exporters outside the Persian Gulf region could have significant impacts on global fertilizer markets already reeling from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a modeling analysis shows.Export restrictions insulate domestic users from high global prices, but amplify global supply shocks by removing physical volume from the marketplace.Subsidies shield domestic farmers from high global prices, sustaining consumption but contributing to price increases.The closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the outbreak of the Iran war on February 28, 2026,