High prices of energy push food prices even higher, as natural gas is needed to produce nitrogenous fertilizers and fuel is needed for on-farm productivity and food transportation. Exposed to high prices, some farmers might move forward with planting plans, passing high production costs to consumers others might reduce their use of fertilizers, reducing output. High prices of fertilizer have also limited options for low- and middle-income countries that otherwise would have opted to buffer global price shocks by boosting their own agricultural productivity. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agriculture Statistics Service reports that American farmers intend to plant a record-high amount of soybeans, which require relatively less fertilizer, nearly double the amount of wheat farmers intend to plant in 2022, which is at its fifth-lowest acreage in over a century. As sanctions limit fertilizer exports from Russia and Belarus and fertilizer prices rise, wealthy countries that might have, for example, increased wheat production to fill projected shortfalls on the global market and capitalize on high global prices, are instead investing in less fertilizer-intensive crops. The implication of fertilizer in today’s market disruptions limits options for responses by wealthy countries as well as low- and middle-income countries. Agricultural products like wheat and oilseeds are ingredients for staple foods like bread and cooking oil, which are primary sources of calories for millions of people around the world. Two elements of today’s agriculture market disruptions are new: First, the war is disrupting markets for final agricultural products and agricultural inputs at the same time. Global undernourishment may have reached a 15-year high in 2020 due to the continued effects of climate change and regional conflict, on top of the economic and supply chain shocks of Covid-19. In 20, concurrent droughts in multiple food-exporting countries, food export bans by many more, and high energy prices caused the nominal price of food to double between 20, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Q1: What is new about this global food crisis?Ī1: Global agricultural markets have endured supply-side shocks and price spikes before. What can we expect in the coming months? What can be done to stave off the worst effects-for Ukraine and the world? And what are the lessons for policymakers? Seven weeks into the war, the contours of these consequences are clear: exports from Ukraine have stalled, future harvests are in question, global prices of agriculture commodities have spiked, and most exposed are the countries that rely on agricultural exports from Ukraine and Russia to feed their citizens or fertilizer from Russia and Belarus to produce their own food. But the nature of Russia’s war in Ukraine-a war between two agricultural production powerhouses, in the context of globalized agricultural markets-presents never-before-seen consequences for global agriculture and food security. Wars have disrupted agriculture throughout history. The Russia-Ukraine War and Global Food Security: A Seven-Week Assessment, and the Way Forward for Policymakers Responding to Egregious Human Rights Abuses.Building Sustainable and Inclusive Democracy.Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, and Immunizations.Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Impacts.Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation.
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