Simon Groot, from the Netherlands, has been announced as the 2019 World Food Prize Laureate for his unparalleled contribution to significantly enhancing the livelihoods and incomes of the smallholders. Groot and his business partner, Benito Domingo, began East-West Seeds in the Philippines, a venture focused on the development of high-quality vegetable seed varieties that can help farmers earn higher incomes. Since the program’s inception, these varieties have spread across Southeast Asia, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Southern Africa faced widespread drought from the October 2018 to March 2019 rainy season, with less than 55 percent of normal rainfall totals, alerts FEWS. The 2018-2019 rainfall began a month late, triggering extended dry spells between January and March. The historically low rainfall totals affected areas of Botswana, northern Zimbabwe, eastern Namibia, southern Angola, and the surplus producing areas of northern South Africa and southern Zambia, and registered a D3 (Extreme) or a D4 (Exceptional) drought as per the United States Drought Monitor classification scale.

In April 2019, the FAO Food Price Index rose 1.5 percent from March and reached its second highest level since June 2018. The increase was driven by the slight price increase in meat, dairy, vegetable oils and sugar prices. The index, however, remained 2.3 percent below March 2018 levels.

The Cereal Price Index was down 2.8 percent from March and 5 percent below its April 2018 value. The decline was pressured by large export availabilities and slowing trade.

The FAO/WFP Joint Rapid Food Security Assessment was recently released, drawing attention to the increasingly alarming food security situation in North Korea. The country faces food shortages after the worst harvest in 10 years. There is a food deficit of 1.36 million metric tons, and 10.1 million people are experiencing food insecurity.

On July 6, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on a range of Chinese goods worth $34 billion. China retaliated immediately with 25% tariff on U.S. goods, including agricultural products. While the goal of the tariff, according to the U.S. President, is to protect jobs and intellectual property, the impacts to U.S. producers has been and may continue to be substantial. Less than a week later, on July 19, U.S. soy prices hit a ten-year low, with the August futures for the price of a bushel at $8.39 and November futures at only $8.55 .

Source: Bloomburg

On March 18, 2015, the Third UN World Conference adopted The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 . The framework is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement that aims to substantially reduce loss of lives, livelihoods, health outcomes, and physical, economic, environmental, social, and cultural assets stemming from disasters, both natural and man-made.
The framework builds on the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters and sets forth seven global targets:

Wheat takes center stage in the May issue of FAO's Monthly News Report on Grains , released this week.

According to an article from Bloomberg, Russia is expected to see a record grain crop this year after the warmest winter on record and plentiful spring rains; the wheat crop is expected to reach 63.3 million tons of wheat, the second largest harvest after 2008.

Agriculture, food prices, and food and nutrition security have long played an important role in the G7 and G20 meetings. The following links provide a timeline of some of the most important agriculture- and food-related decisions to come out of these meetings since 2011.

G7 Leaders's Declaration on Food Security

Paris G20 Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture

Mexico G20 Agriculture Vice Ministers/Deputies Report

Australia G20 Framework on Food Security and Nutrition

Turkey G20 Agriculture Ministers' Communique

Trade was the major theme in January's Monthly News Report on Grains , released earlier this week. Changes in several countries' export and import policies and volumes were reported.

International cereal prices remain significantly below last year’s levels due to abundant global supplies and strong export competition, says the latest Food Price Monitoring and Analysis Bulletin from FAO. The benchmark US wheat price was $214 per tonne in January, while the benchmark US maize price averaged $161 per tonne in January. Rice prices were slightly more varied depending on their origin; prices rose slightly for Thai 100%B white rice but fell for rice from Vietnam, India, and the US. These trends echo findings from this month’s FAO Food Price Index .