What's New

Over the past two months, India has removed several of its restrictions affecting rice exports, some in place since September 2022. This is welcome news for rice importing countries, which for the past year have had to seek alternative suppliers at significantly elevated prices.

Japan faced a rice shortage during the summer of 2024, sparking confusion among consumers as supermarket shelves emptied. While low stock levels of rice and tight supply before the October harvest are normal, several factors combined to exacerbate this crisis. Total rice production was normal in 2023, but unseasonable weather reduced the ratio of high-quality rice in overall output.

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), rural communities play a crucial role in shaping the country’s agricultural landscape and food security. To better understand these dynamics, IFPRI conducted a Rural Household Survey between May and December 2023 that aimed to gain a clearer picture of rural livelihood structures, food security status, and nutrition trends. We outlined some initial takeaways in an earlier blog post. Here we explore the results in more detail, finding an array of serious food security challenges.

The 2024 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) released in April 2024, reported that around 59.8 million or nearly one-third of the analyzed population across five countries in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) faced acute food insecurity in 2023 due to economic crises, conflict/insecurity, weather extremes and natural disasters. The 2024 Mid-Year Update of the GRFC, released in September, reports an improvement in food security for Afghanistan and Pakistan but further deterioration in Myanmar and Bangladesh.    

Reducing food loss and waste (FLW) is crucial to improving food security, reducing malnutrition, and providing livelihoods for food system workers. But such efforts are also key to combating climate change. FLW has significant environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in both the production of food that is later lost and in waste management.