Global turmoil pushes world’s largest wheat importer to boost domestic harvest
Ankara and Moscow will engage in talks to create a potential sea corridor that will free up Ukrainian agricultural exports, as Russia’s top diplomat is set to pay a visit to Turkey next week.
UNITED NATIONS — With global hunger levels at a new high, the United Nations chief said Wednesday he is in “intense contacts” with Russia and other key countries and is “hopeful” of an agreement to allow the export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports and ensure Russian food and fertilizer have unrestricted access to global markets.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing one of its most severe droughts in recent history, with more than 15 million people acutely food insecure in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
Somalia’s inflation is expected to surge past 10% unless the country gets good rains over the next two months to help ease pressure on food prices after losing wheat supplies from Ukraine, according to a top official at its central bank.
The Human Rights Watch predicts that food prices could go up by 17% if the war in Ukraine continues. Cameroon has urged its citizens to switch to cassava crops as a shortage of wheat is being felt. There are fears of food riots in Kenya since the last one in February calling for price reduction of food, which spread to social media.
This blog post is part of a special series on the global and regional food security implications of rising food and fertilizer prices that began with the pandemic and are now exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The blog series is curated by IFPRI Senior Research Fellows Joseph Glauber and David Laborde to offer a range of perspectives and analyses on both the short- and long-term impacts.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Russia's war in Ukraine could mean changes for Ed Kessel's farm along a quiet stretch of western North Dakota.
The on-going war between Russia and Ukraine has reportedly affected the global economy with sharp increase in the price of cereals and agricultural input such as fertilizer. It is against this backdrop that the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, recently raised the alarm that the war will likely trigger food riots and political crises in many African countries, especially those that depend so much on food imports from the troubled war zone.
The continent relies heavily on Russian and Ukrainian exports, but Russia’s invasion and resulting sanctions have disrupted supply and pushed up prices Wheat, corn, sunflower oil and fertiliser are among the products affected, along with oil, compounding the impact of political instability and drought
