Internally displaced Ethiopians queue to receive food aid in the Higlo camp for people displaced by drought, at the town of Gode in Ethiopia’s Somali region on April 26, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

Acute food insecurity now touching 345 million worldwide

Reading Time: 2 minutes Baghdad | Reuters — The number of people facing acute food insecurity worldwide has more than doubled to 345 million since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict and climate change, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday. Before the coronavirus crisis, 135 million suffered from acute hunger worldwide, Corinne Fleischer, the WFP’s regional […] Read more

An aerial view of parched terrace fields at Chongqing’s Fuyuan village in east-central China on Aug. 19, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Thomas Peter)

China’s farmers struggle to save crops as heatwave, drought drag on

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chongqing | Reuters — As the tinder-dry countryside along China’s Yangtze river basin withers under a heatwave that has lasted more than two months, veteran farmer Chen Xiaohua recalled the last severe drought to hit his crops more than 60 years ago. “This year is drier than 1960,” said Chen, 68, from his plot of […] Read more


CBOT November 2022 soybeans (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (yellow, green and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn, soybeans steady

U.S. Midwest rain, Ukraine sea exports add pressure

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybeans inched higher on Wednesday, bouncing from two days of declines, though the recovery was limited by rain improving weather forecasts in the U.S. Midwest. Wheat prices fell, pressured by increased export activity from Ukraine, while corn traded near even. The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade […] Read more




Weekly-average Pacific Ocean surface temperature anomalies for the week centred on Aug. 3, 2022, in degrees Celsius. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)

La Nina conditions to continue, but odds lower into winter

Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Chances for La Niña are expected to gradually decrease from 86 per cent in the coming season to 60 per cent during December to February in 2022-23, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday. The La Niña weather pattern is characterized by unusually cold temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. According to […] Read more


File photo of a rainy day in Iqaluit. (Wildnerdpix/iStock/Getty Images)

Cold and hungry: Food inflation bites Canada’s North

'It's really expensive to do business here'

Reading Time: 3 minutes Iqaluit | Reuters –– In Canada’s remote North, residents have long paid dearly for food, and rising prices have worsened an already dire situation, exposing the vulnerability of one of the world’s biggest exporters of grains and meat. Communities in Nunavut — the largest of the three territories that make up Canada’s northernmost region — […] Read more

Federal Ag Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau (r) visits the Ag in Motion outdoor farm show near Langham, Sask. on July 20, 2022. (Greg Berg photo)

Ag ministers lock in next policy funding framework

AgriStability compensation rate to rise; new EGS program planned; some agmins decry feds' approach on fertilizer emission cuts

Reading Time: 4 minutes The new federal-provincial ag policy funding framework due to take effect next April 1 will include a new ecological goods and services plan and a sweetened compensation rate for AgriStability. Following meetings this week in Saskatoon, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and her provincial and territorial counterparts on Friday mapped out the bones of their […] Read more


(Lightguard/iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan crops advancing quickly

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Hot and humid conditions saw crops in Saskatchewan advance quickly during the week ended Monday, according to the latest provincial crop report — although the humidity has slowed haying. When humidity is high, cutting hay becomes more challenging and hay that is cut does not dry down as quickly, which can result in […] Read more

CBOT November 2022 soybeans (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (yellow, green and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soy, corn futures ease on improving weather

CBOT wheat firms on export news

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean and corn futures fell on Wednesday on forecasts for improving weather in the Midwest, including rains next week that should boost crop production prospects, analysts said. Wheat futures rose as traders awaited the outcome of Egyptian wheat purchase negotiations, as well as talks on a possible deal to boost […] Read more


Upcoming events