From yet more extreme weather hurting crops and a deepening hunger crisis in Africa, to efforts to boost trade and farm tech, here’s a roundup of the latest key food stories from around the world: Weather Woes This week offered a worrying reminder of how climate change is altering the weather — and threatening food supplies. Severe rains hit parts of Europe, Asia, the US and Africa, where the worst floods in decades across a swath of the continent’s west and central regions are worsening a food-insecurity crisis. Millions of people in Africa have been directly affected and vast amounts of farmland have been engulfed. It’s not just deluges shaking up agricultural markets. Sugar prices soared this week as traders digest the extent of crop damage from fires and searing heat in top producer Brazil. Parched fields in Russia and Ukraine are threatening plantings for next year’s wheat harvest, and a lack of spring rain across Western Australia is expected to crimp the grain’s production. Elsewhere, heavy rain drenched Shanghai, while China’s northeastern grain belt has been threatened by frost. There are also concerns that high precipitation may hamper growth and fuel crop diseases in the country. More Trade? India is considering relaxing curbs on overseas sales of non-basmati rice, days after scrapping a floor price for exports of a premium grade. Any further efforts to remove export hurdles would be good news for countries in West Africa and the Middle East that usually rely on imports. At the same time, Indonesia cut an export levy on palm oil in a bid to boost shipments of the tropical commodity. That should help the biggest grower become more competitive than neighboring Malaysia, and may further pressure prices. Tech on the Farm Farmers shelling out $37 billion a year to drench fields in liquid weed killers are increasingly trying out a new model: use tech to use less. Using AI-powered cameras, new sprayers can identify and target invasive plants while avoiding the cash crops. Using less weed killer through precision applications can help cut costs for growers, while also addressing environmental concerns. —Agnieszka de Sousa in London |