Food Outlook is a biannual publication (May/June and November/December) focusing on developments affecting global food and feed markets. The sub-title "Global Market Analysis" reflects this focus on developments in international markets, with comprehensive assessments and forecasts on a commodity by commodity basis. Food Outlook maintains a close synergy with another major GIEWS publication, Crop Prospects and Food Situation, especially with regard to the coverage of cereals. The full report is available in English and summaries in Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian.

Around 27 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) between September and December 2021, of which around 6.1 million people are experiencing critical levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 4). The country has the largest number of highly food insecure people in the world. In the projection period, from January to June 2022, 25.9 million people or 25% of the analysed population will likely be in IPC Phase 3 or above, including 5.4 million in Emergency (IPC Phase 4). The first-ever IPC Acute Malnutrition analysis conducted in 70 health zones out of the 503 areas of DRC has also revealed that nearly 860,000 children under the age of five and nearly 470,000 pregnant or lactating women are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022. Of the children, more than 200,000 are expected to be severely malnourished and will urgently require treatment. 

Innovation holds the potential to unlock employment opportunities, empower youth and women to access information, technology and markets, and scale up new solutions to global challenges to food and agriculture. FAO assists member countries in unlocking the potential of innovation to drive socio-economic growth, ensure food and nutrition security, alleviate poverty and improve resilience to climate change, thereby helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Because innovation is a complex process where governments and other key stakeholders play different roles, FAO focuses on a system-wide approach. From Drones to 3D printers, this selection of FAO publications explore the potential of innovation in agriculture and food production.  

Reducing rural poverty is a key objective of FAO. To achieve this goal, the Organization must reach the poor and the extremely poor in rural areas, analysing their needs and aspirations and providing effective guidance for the design of policies and investments that foster inclusive and sustainable development. This guide was developed to strengthen the Organization’s work on rural poverty reduction and inclusivity over the coming years. It provides key information to measure poverty, characterize rural populations, and identify their constraints to target them more accurately.

The paper investigates the basics of public stockholding, exploring the objectives of such programmes, the policy instruments used to achieve them, and their possible market impacts. It also synthesizes country experiences in implementing public stockholding programmes in different regions and presents the evolution of administered and international prices over the last decade. Finally, the paper highlights the main elements of the WTO negotiations on public stockholding for food security, and some of the issues that need to be resolved to help achieve consensus in this area.