What's New

While women contribute significantly to global agricultural production, they often lack access to credit and finance, training and extension services, resources, and land rights, putting them at higher risk of malnutrition, food insecurity, and poverty. Increasing women’s empowerment in agriculture is a critical step in ensuring gender equity and reducing hunger for all.

The FAO Food Price Index continued to climb for the ninth consecutive month. Food prices rose by 2.4 percent in February to reach the highest levels seen since July 2014.

As populations grow and the climate crisis intensifies, sustainable agricultural practices are essential to mitigate negative environmental impacts and increase the efficiency of food systems. But persuading farmers to adopt such practices is often a challenge. How can policy makers promote a shift towards sustainable agriculture in ways that promote meaningful change?

The Ceres2030 project has shown the urgent need for additional investments—a yearly average of $14 billion from donors and $19 billion from low-income countries for the next decade—to meet Sustainable Development Goal 2, ending hunger by 2030, and to build more sustainable food security. 

But how should that money be spent?

Africa’s population is expected to continue to grow rapidly, reaching 2 billion by 2050. In order to combat the region’s already high levels of malnutrition and meet future food demand, Africa’s agricultural production and productivity (which is low by global standards and further threatened by climate change) will need to grow significantly. In addition to these challenges, Africa is also experiencing an economic slowdown, partly caused by a decrease in global prices for African export commodities. This is hampering efforts to meet food security and poverty reduction targets.