Malawi is at the centre of a diplomatic tussle for influence, but as a food crisis looms, farmers are happy to accept desperately needed shipments The Russian national anthem rings out at a farm to the south of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. Farmers attending the handover ceremony of 20,000 tonnes of Russian fertiliser rise to their feet, out of respect for their guests. Later, some will collect bags of the desperately needed nitrogen, phosphate and potassium (NPK). Amid global fertiliser shortages and rising prices since 2020, aggravated by the Russia-Ukraine war, the Russian chemicals company U ..read more

Excessive use of phosphorus is depleting reserves vital to global food production, while also adding to the climate crisis Our planet faces “phosphogeddon”, scientists have warned. They fear our misuse of phosphorus could lead to deadly shortages of fertilisers that would disrupt global food production. At the same time, phosphate fertiliser washed from fields – together with sewage inputs into rivers, lakes and seas – is giving rise to widespread algal blooms and creating aquatic dead zones that threaten fish stocks ..read more

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have called for the deal that allows Russia and Ukraine to export foodstuffs and fertilisers through the Black Sea to global markets to be extended. The deal, known as the Black Sea grain initiative, was brokered by the UN and Turkey last year, and creates a humanitarian safe corridor through the Black Sea, which facilitates exports of foodstuffs and fertilisers from the warring countries.  Guterres raised concern about the consequences for global food security if the deal fell through in a press ..read more

Reports suggest Russia unhappy about deal and is threatening to pull out of scheme exporting grain from Black Sea ports Ukraine’s president and the UN secretary general have called for a vital deal allowing Russian and Ukrainian wheat and fertilisers to be exported through the Black Sea to be extended, amid reports that Moscow does not intend to renew its participation. Ukraine and Russia signed the UN-backed deal for an initial 120 days last July, allowing the export of millions of tonnes of grain from blockaded Black Sea ports, an agreement that was seen as averting the threat of a global fo ..read more

Leader says agriculture needs ‘fundamental transformation’ and makes hitting grain targets a priority as country isolated by sanctions struggles North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has urged government officials to engineer a “fundamental transformation” in agricultural production, state media reported, amid fears that the country’s food shortage is worsening. Kim said hitting grain production targets this year was a priority and emphasised the importance of stable agriculture production during the second day of a key meeting of the Workers’ party, the state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday ..read more

South Korea warns that death from starvation appears to be rising in many of the North’s provinces The major North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun has said that relying on external aid to cope with food shortages would be the same as taking “poisoned candy”, amid a national crisis and a reported increase in deaths from starvation. North Korea has suffered food shortages in recent years, brought on by natural disasters, international sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear and missile programmes, and a sharp cut in trade with China due to border closures and Covid-19 lockdowns ..read more

Catholic charity Cafod says local NGOs are best placed to respond on the frontline but are being cut out of the process South Sudan is facing the world’s most severe food insecurity crisis, yet the local groups most effective at delivering aid are not being directly funded, according to a new report. Only 0.4% of humanitarian funding meant for food is directly channelled towards South Sudanese NGOs, despite them being the most effective at tackling hunger, according to the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (Cafod ..read more

With floods covering much of the land, farmers in Paguir, an isolated village in Fangak county, are replacing despair with resilience and learning new skills to survive Words by Susan Martinez and photographs by Peter Caton for Action Against Hunger. A selection of the images can be seen at a free exhibition at the gallery@oxo in London from 8 to 19 February 2023 ..read more

Toxic pesticides used to eradicate grain-eating quelea may harm the country’s endangered raptors, say conservationists A drive by the Kenyan government to kill up to 6 million red-billed quelea birds that have invaded farms will have unintended consequences for raptors and other wild species, experts have warned. The continuing drought in the Horn of Africa has reduced the amount of native grass, whose seeds are queleas’ main food source, causing the birds to increasingly invade grain fields, putting 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of rice under threat. About 300 acres of rice fields have been dest ..read more

Kelp absorbs carbon dioxide and has high nutritional value, but it is under threat from rising temperatures, pollution and invasive species Bubbles stream furiously behind Frank Hurd as he gently parts the curtains of giant kelp. Green and gold ribbons reach upwards through the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean towards the sun. Hurd, a marine biologist with environmental organisation the Nature Conservancy, is diving in a kelp forest off Anacapa Island, one of the protected rocky volcanic islets that form the Channel Islands national park, an archipelago off the coast of southern California ..read more