BY NICOLA M. LOWE, ANDREW G. HALL, MARTIN R. BROADLEY, JEN FOLEY, ERICK BOY, AND ZULFIQAR A. BHUTTA OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Zinc is a crucial micronutrient for good health, and zinc deficiency is one of the most common forms of micronutrient malnutrition globally—an estimated 17% of people worldwide are at risk of inadequate zinc intake, and that figure
BY TADDESE ZERFU OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Global child survival rates have risen since 1990 and facility births have increased. Yet improvements in neonatal mortality rates have lagged. From 1990-2020, this measure declined at a slower rate than post-neonatal under-5 mortality. Notably, virtually all (99%) of the children who died within the first four weeks of life were in
BY TRUDIE SIKAS-IHA AND EMILY SCHMIDT OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 A new IFPRI survey of rural households in Papua New Guinea (PNG)—the most expansive consumption expenditure survey in more than a decade—shows the continuing predominance of subsistence agriculture and that rural diets remain reliant on inexpensive, starchy staple foods. The 2023 PNG Rural Household Survey, funded by the Australia
BY JAN DUCHOSLAV, JOACHIM DE WEERDT, AND RODWELL MZONDE OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Malawi is facing a severe drought crisis linked to the El Niño climate phenomenon. On March 23, President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of disaster in 23 of Malawi’s 28 districts in anticipation of a poor harvest and appealed for more than $200 million in humanitarian assistance. El
PRESS RELEASE April 11, 2024, Hanoi, Vietnam: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today in Hanoi. IFPRI’s delegation was received at Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. IFPRI’s Director General, Johan Swinnen, and IPSARD’s Director General, Tran Cong Thang,
BY JOSEPH GLAUBER AND WESTON ANDERSON OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Parts of Southern Africa have been experiencing a severe drought since late 2023, fueled in large part by the ongoing El Niño Southern Oscillation. Falling harvests have led to disaster declarations in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe and affected countries across the region. In particular, maize yields have fallen sharply,
BY CHARLOTTE HEBEBRAND AND JOSEPH GLAUBER OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sent a shock through global fertilizer markets. All agricultural trade in the region was disrupted for a time, and a number of countries imposed economic sanctions on major fertilizer producers Russia and its ally Belarus (the latter already targeted pre-invasion by European
BY ROB VOS OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 The war in Ukraine continues to disrupt the country’s agrifood sector, posing an ongoing threat to food security. Damage to critical infrastructure is hindering agricultural activity and the transportation of essential food to local markets and to export destinations. This situation, together with destroyed livelihoods and high inflation, is hampering access to