The worst food crisis in 30 years looms for 50 million people across southern Africa from Mozambique to Angola. Two years without rain has destroyed harvests. Food prices have skyrocketed.

The situation is even worse for Haiti, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations reports. After experiencing three years of dramatic droughts, it now suffers from the impact of hurricane Matthew. The storm devastated agricultural land and fisheries leaving 2.1 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

Analysts urge for much more research and mitigation efforts to predict coming weather and climate events and to invest in adapted agricultural methods to keep damages low, such as advanced irrigation and soil preservation methods or resilient crops.

Aside from natural and climate induced crises, price volatility, which is the rise and fall of food market prices over a specific period of time, is seen as a barrier to stable and lasting food commodity production. In times of high volatility it is difficult for farmers to take production decisions because they cannot anticipate price trends, and for vulnerable populations rapid price hikes reduce their access to food.

Read more: http://www.youris.com/Bioeconomy/Food/Levelling-Food-Price-Volatility-While-Supporting-The-Poor.kl