AGRA

Dear colleagues and partners,
 
We are pleased to present you with our October Food Security Monitor which you can read and download here. This month focuses on a number of key issues including COVID, price stability issues, hunger spots and trade barriers.

Key highlights from the October Food Security Monitor include:

• The number of countries with very high levels of food insecurity decreased to four over the past month with the situation in Zimbabwe improving over the past month
• Cross border transit remains slowed, but tracking systems are easing some transit woes, especially in East Africa.
• COVID-19 cases increased in countries tracked by the Food Security Monitor at a slightly higher rate than that noted in September as countries cautiously opened economies. Monthly increases rose by 19% on the average
• Desert locusts re-emerged as a threat to crops as we saw threats of a new generation of desert locusts emerge in the Horn of Africa, particularly in Ethiopia and Somalia.

While there are many information products on food security out there, we do hope the detailed analysis presented in our Food Security Monitor adds value from the point of view of African agriculture, food trade as well as food and nutrition security. The report comes out monthly; previous editions of the Food Security Monitor are available here. We welcome any feedback to Charles Nhemachena, cnhemachena@agra.org. 

Dr. Apollos Nwafor,
Vice President, Policy and State Capability, AGRA