FAO’s Food Price Index – which measures monthly changes in international prices of a basket of meat, dairy, cereals, oils and fats, and sugar – dropped nearly four points to 201.8 last month, down 5.1 per cent from August of last year.

The FAO Cereal Price Index averaged 210.9 points, down 16.4 points from July and 49.4 points from August 2012.

The drop in grain prices “reflects expectations for strong growth in world cereal production this year and, especially, a sharp recovery in maize,” the FAO said in reference to corn.

Global production of maize is forecast to rise to 983 million tonnes. The bulk of that figure originating in the United States where maize production is expected to reach 343 million tonnes this year, some 25 per cent higher than the 2012 drought-reduced level.

Higher maize crops are officially reported in Argentina and improved prospects in the European Union and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, coarse grain output is predicted to expand 10.5 per cent to 1,285 million tonnes, while the wheat to a 7.6 per cent rise to 710 million tonnes.

World rice production is set to increase by 1.3 per cent, reaching a new high of 497 million tonnes, in milled equivalent.

The boosts have led to a revised forecast of overall world cereal production upwards 14 million tonnes to 2,492 million tonnes, according to a separate FAO report. This would be 179 million tonnes higher than in 2012 and a new record.

The Rome-based agency said that based on the latest forecasts, total use of cereals for direct human consumption is set to expand by 1.2 per cent to 1, 094 million tones.

The FAO Oils/Fats Price Index averaged 185.5 points in August, 5.7 points below the July value and the third consecutive monthly decline.

Dairy prices, FAO noted, averaged 239.1 points in August, 2.8 points more than in July and 37 per cent above its level in August last year. Prices rose last month for all dairy products in the Index except butter due to export supply limits in major trading countries.

The FAO Meat Price Index averaged 175.0 points in August, an increase of 2.2 points.

“More areas were becoming inaccessible due to increased fighting,” WFP spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva, adding that the agency is also having difficulty reaching parts of Al Hasakeh in the northeast.

Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced.

As of yesterday, WFP had dispatched food for 2.4 million people, short of the July goal.

Byrs said WFP was “extremely concerned about the developing situation in Homs,” where it is believed that several thousand people are trapped in some parts of the old city.

The situation in the Homs district of Waa’er, where almost 300,000 internally displaced people had taken refuge, was still tense she said, but WFP had managed to dispatch and distribute the July monthly allocation of food rations through partners.

Meanwhile, there are still 400,000 people at risk of food shortages in Idlib, and 1.2 million hard to reach persons in Rural Damascus.

Difficulties were also being reported by non-governmental organization (NGO) partners in both transport and speed of distribution in certain locations. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent for example, had called for additional supplies for 28,000 people in Aleppo, including ready to eat rations, high energy biscuits and flour.

WFP is currently monitoring the situation and potential population displacement to meet their immediate basic needs, but resources are running low. Ms. Byrs said WFP needs $763 million to assist seven million Syrians until the end of the year.

“Here in Rwanda, WFP is providing the life-saving food assistance that we are known for to tens of thousands of refugees, but we and our partners are also supporting community-based agriculture and livelihoods projects that assist the poorest and most vulnerable Rwandans as they build a brighter future for their families,” said the agency’s Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin, at the end of her three-day visit to the country.

“When speaking with small-scale farmers and rural families, I could see very clearly the difference that rural development initiatives have made in helping people improve their lives.”

Ms. Cousin said the progress made on development in Rwanda illustrates the importance of close and effective partnerships between UN agencies, communities and government in helping in empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty.

“I met one woman farmer who started with nearly nothing, and now has become so successful that she’s been able to build her family a new house, and put her children though school,” said Ms. Cousin, who also met with displaced persons and refugees on both side of the border shared by Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

During her visit, Ms. Cousin also visited the Nkamira refugee transit centre and a successful terracing and watershed management project in Rulindo district, in northern Rwanda. She also visited and spoke with farmers in eastern Rwanda who belong to an agricultural cooperative in Kirehe district through which they are selling their surplus maize and beans to WFP via the Purchase for Progress initiative, known as “P4P”.

P4P aims to use WFP’s purchasing power to help connect smallholder farmers to markets. In Rwanda, the programme has grown from a WFP project into a national initiative, boosting productivity and improving the lives and livelihoods of small-scale farmers.

Since 2011, WFP has purchased 33,000 metric tons of combined food commodities – maize and beans – worth $15.5 million, through a combination of P4P purchases and regular food procurement.

WFP and the Rwandan Government are also exploring ways to link the P4P programme to food-for-education initiatives, providing students with a daily school meal grown in their own communities and turn schools into regular customers for local farmers.

This was Ms. Cousin’s first visit to Rwanda as WFP Executive Director. While in the country, she also met with top Government officials, including Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, and with the heads of UN agencies in Rwanda.

“The cash allows refugees to have more control in diversifying their diets, and they can buy milk, vegetables or pasta directly from the local market,” said Abdou Dieng, Country Director for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia.

Refugees at Sheddar, located outside of Jijiga, the regional capital of the Somali area of Ethiopia, are now receiving a monthly ration of 13.9 kilograms of food – including wheat, rice, pulses, corn-soya blend, oil, sugar and salt – as well as a cash allocation of 100 Ethiopian Birr or the equivalent of $5 per person.

An additional 13,000 refugees will start to receive cash in the same region in October. The moves are part of a pilot initiative that will last until December.

The pilot project is part of an “excellent partnership”, Mr. Dieng said, between WFP, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the Government of Ethiopia represented by the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA) and the donor, European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) which provided a contribution of $1.3 million.

Ethiopia, along with Kenya and Yemen, host most of the 1 million Somali refugees, who, along with some 1.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), are bearing the brunt of the factional fighting in the country since 1991.

During a visit to Mogadishu last week, John Ging, Director of Operations in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that despite gradual improvements in the humanitarian situation in Somalia, the needs remain immense and urged greater investment to break the cycle of crisis in the Horn of Africa nation.

Food production has slowed and prices are on the rise, making it harder and harder for Syrian families to meet their food needs, the two agencies said. As many as 4 million people across the country are now unable to buy or produce enough food.

“With so many adverse factors now stacked against the crop and livestock sectors, and assuming that the present crisis remains unresolved, domestic production over the next twelve months will be severely compromised,” the report added.

The report followed an assessment mission to Syria between May and June. It found that massive population displacement, disruption of agricultural production, unemployment, economic sanctions, currency depreciation and high food and fuel prices have all damaged the ability of families in Syria to meet their food needs.

In many parts of the country, the price of wheat flour more than doubled between 2011 and 2013, prompting WFP to begin distributing wheat flour with its monthly food ration.

Damage to farms and machinery together with the threat of violence and the soaring costs of raw materials have hampered food production across the country. Among the millions of people displaced by the conflict in Syria, many are farmers whose crops are likely to go unharvested, the report warns.

Wheat flour mills and bakeries have either closed or are operating far below their capacity. Sanctions have exacerbated the situation, leading to shortages of raw materials, fuel and spare parts.

“There is a limited window of opportunity to ensure crisis-affected families do not lose vital sources of food and income,” WFP and FAO said.

Working with partner organisations in Syria, WFP reached 2.5 million people with food assistance in June, is planning to feed 3 million people in July and is ramping up logistics and operational capacity to feed 4 million people by October. In addition, WFP is providing food assistance to nearly one million refugees sheltering in neighbouring countries.

WFP is seeking to raise more than US $27 million every week to meet the food needs of people affected by the conflict both inside Syria and in neighbouring countries.

Under the revised Syrian Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan (SHARP), WFP’s requirements for its operations inside Syria alone until the end of 2013 totalled $490 million.

“The main coping strategy adopted by 82 per cent of interviewed beneficiaries was switching to lower quality foods, adversely affecting dietary diversity,” UN World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva.

The interviews took place during WFP monitoring visits in seven governorates during April: Damascus, Rural Damascus, Homs, Lattakia, Tartous, Al-Hasakeh and Aleppo.

The number of people begging rose to nine per cent in April, up from five per cent in March, according to the people interviewed, Ms. Byrs said, adding that for them, it was “their only option.”

Since it began in March 2011, the Syrian conflict has left more than 93,000 people dead and another 6.8 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

Housing is of particular concern for families in Rural Damascus, Damascus and Tartous. Forty-two per cent of those interviewed said they need help paying rent. Two or more families live together to share rental expenses, with up to 25 people living in a single two-room apartment, according to the UN agency’s monitoring reports.

Families unable to cover rent are living in uncompleted buildings, abandoned stores, old bus stations, factories or warehouses.

In those areas, along with Aleppo, children of displaced families are not attending schools and some are forced to work to help their families make ends meet, Ms. Byrs said.

Meanwhile, WFP is preparing for the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan during the second week of July. The UN agency said it is in the process of increasing its food transports for prepositioning into Syria since organisations assisting with the transport will limit their activities.

WFP said it plans to reach 2.5 million Syrians in June and July, after providing food assistance to almost 2.2 million at 200 locations in all parts of Syria in April.

“School feeding assures that where quality education is available, children are able to take advantage of the opportunity to learn,” said the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin.

“It’s an investment that pays off in the future with better-educated, stronger and healthier adults and it’s also a critical safety net to prevent the most vulnerable from suffering in times of crisis,” she said.

The State of School Feeding Worldwide report, produced by WFP, provides a global analysis of school feeding programmes in developed and developing nations, as well as data on how governments use school meals as a safety net in times of crisis.

According to WFP, around 368 million children – about one in five – get a meal at school every day in 169 developing and developed countries. However, despite the global nature of school feeding, the coverage of these programmes is lowest where they are most needed. In low-income countries, only 18 per cent receive a daily meal at school, compared to nearly 49 per cent of children in middle-income countries.

Global investment in these programmes is about $75 billion, with most coming from government budgets. While these may seem like a large investment, the benefits are even greater as the report states that for every $1 spent by government and donors at least $3 is gained in economic returns.

Over the past five years, at least 38 countries have scaled up their school feeding programmes in response to a crisis, whether related to food prices, conflict, natural disaster or financial volatility.

“During the food and fuel crises in 2008 many Governments struggled to protect the most vulnerable from hunger and looked to school meals to achieve that. In the current recession, even wealthy nations are examining how school meals can prevent families sliding deeper into poverty and hunger,” said the report’s lead author Carmen Burbano.

WFP has been operating school meals programmes in developing countries for almost 50 years. In 2012, the agency provided meals or nutritious snacks in school for 24.7 million children in 63 countries, including take-home rations for 1.3 million girls and 500,000 boys – providing an incentive for poor families to keep their children in class, rather than pull them out to work in the fields, in factories or in the home.

The report is being presented today at the largest annual meeting of school feeding experts, co-hosted by the Global Child Nutrition Foundation and WFP’s Centre of Excellence Against Hunger in Brazil.

“With large population movements and the breakdown of regular health services in Syria, additional precautions are required to ensure that children are protected against killer diseases like measles no matter where they are,” said Mahendra Sheth, UNICEF Regional Health Advisor. “Immunization is one of the most cost-effective tools we have available.”

In addition to the more than 70,000 people killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, more than 1.4 million people have taken refuge in neighbouring countries. Currently, up to 8,000 Syrians are fleeing the country daily, UNICEF said in a news release.

There are also some 4.25 million people displaced within Syria – nearly half of them children. Many live in cramped and unsanitary conditions where disease can easily spread, the agency noted.

According to UNICEF, about 332 cases of measles have been reported since December 2012 in the Domiz refugee camp in Iraq; 300 reported in Lebanon since January; 133 registered cases in Syria; and 5 cases have been identified among Syrian refugees in the densely populated Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan.

There have been some 3,000 to 4,000 reported measles cases in Turkey over the past year, including 300 among Syrian refugees.

In all the countries, UNICEF, working with the Ministries of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners, has increased vaccination campaigns to help ensure that all children are protected against disease.

The mass vaccination campaigns coincide with World Immunization Week, which promotes global immunization as one of the most effective tools to keep children safe from deadly disease.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a generous contribution of around $43 million from the United Kingdom that will help provide much-needed food assistance to tens of thousands of Syrians both inside and outside their country. The agency will also use the funds to issue food vouchers to thousands of Syrian refugees who are either sheltering in camps in Turkey or as urban refugees in Lebanon.

“Ever since we launched our emergency operation in Syria and the region last year, the UK has been both timely and effective in responding,” said WFP Emergency Coordinator for the Syria crisis Muhannad Hadi.

“The UK has also given us the freedom to maximize our use of resources, according to our assessment of the situation. For example, we provide food vouchers instead of direct food assistance in areas where markets are still functional. This means WFP is supporting both Syrian refugees and host communities, who are suffering increased pressure in these difficult times.”

The UK is also helping WFP scale up its logistics capacity by providing armoured vehicles and personal protective equipment to assist field monitors inside Syria move around in dangerous areas. The agency must raise $19 million each week to provide food assistance to 2.5 million hungry people inside Syria and more than one million refugees in neighbouring countries.

“While we continue to strive for access to all areas, this is still a major breakthrough which will enable us to assist those who continue to be displaced by the conflict or those who have decided to return to their homes and are in dire need of food assistance,” said WFP’s Country Director in Sudan, Adnan Khan.

Fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) broke out in Blue Nile state in September 2011, after neighbouring South Sudan seceded under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended a decades-long civil war. The fighting in Blue Nile displaced and then isolated tens of thousands of people.

“We are giving a two-month ration for this first round of distribution, following an assessment which we carried out early last month in two of the areas most severely affected by the conflict, Geissan and Kurmuk,” said WFP Programme Officer Arduino Mangoni. He is in Geissan leading a team that monitors the distribution of food to 12,000 people. WFP plans to reach an additional 39,000 people in Kurmuk.

Additional WFP staff are in four other localities in Blue Nile state to determine how people are coping with their food needs, what food is available in the market and at what price.

“The overall plan is to assist all those we can reach in the six localities before the onset of the rainy season in May,” Mr. Khan said.

WFP has said it will need an additional $20.5 million to buy 17,000 metric tons of food it estimates will be needed.

“Despite progress, Yemen’s transition remains fragile,” Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said at the opening of the latest ‘Friends of Yemen’ meeting in London.

Thirty-nine organizations and countries attended the meeting to discuss the political, economic, security and humanitarian sectors in Yemen, which has been undergoing a democratic transition, under the leadership of President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi Mansour, who came to power in the February 2012 election.

Feltman noted that the meeting comes at a “critical juncture” in the transition process – just after the anniversary of Hadi’s election and on the eve of the start of the much anticipated all-inclusive national dialogue, which will feed into a constitution-making progress and pave the way for general elections to be held in 2014.

“President Hadi and the Government have called for sustained international support to Yemeni efforts to keep the process on track. The Friends of Yemen should live up to this call,” he told participants, reminding them that they have a solemn responsibility to stand by the people of Yemen and see the transition succeed.

In the outcome document from the meeting, participants, among other things, stressed their full support for the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen, and reiterated the importance for the transition to be inclusive and a Yemeni-led process.

Also speaking at the meeting, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Jamal Benomar, said the country stands at a “serious crossroad in its transition” with critical stages still ahead such as the upcoming national dialogue conference, building a new constitution and electoral reform.

“All this against a grave and serious backdrop of a humanitarian crisis for which funding remains critically short, a fragile economy with Yemenis yet to feel a tangible impact on their daily lives, and multiple conflicts continuing across the country…” he stated.

On the positive side, he said the national dialogue conference is a sign that “there is a new politics in the making in Yemen.” The UN has been aiding the preparations for the conference, which is being organized by the “most inclusive committee in Yemen’s political history” – including a range of political party leaders, youth, women, members of the Al Houthi armed group and southern separatists.

In addition, the UN in Yemen developed an Integrated Programme and established a Trust Fund to pool international aid for non-humanitarian projects. Pledges currently stand at $17 million.

Benomar also urged Yemen to establish a commission of inquiry to address transitional justice, and to reach consensus on how to address the legacy of the past, saying that “only with these steps, can Yemen open a new page and ensure a path to national reconciliation.”

Ahead of today’s meeting, UN aid agencies and their partners stressed that there would be no prospects for recovery and development in Yemen unless the humanitarian situation was urgently addressed.

In the past two years, violence forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Most of those fleeing the violence last year in the south have now returned home. The humanitarian community said today that for the returns to be sustainable, “urgent assistance is required to restore damaged infrastructure and basic services and to re-establish law and order.”

The insecurity also led to the near-collapse of most basic services and an increase in poverty, causing alarming rates of food insecurity and malnutrition. More than 10 million people – almost half the country’s population – are estimated to need food assistance, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Child malnutrition rates are also among the highest in the world with close to half of Yemen’s children under five years – two million children – stunted and one million acutely malnourished.

The 2013 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan called for $716 million to provide emergency and early recovery assistance to 7.7 million of the country’s most vulnerable. The figure represents a 22 per cent increase over last year’s plan, which was only 58 per cent funded.

“New donor commitments towards the Humanitarian Response Plan will be critical – not only to addressing human suffering but also to make the progress towards recovery irreversible,” the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said in a press release issued on behalf of the Yemen Humanitarian Country Team.

“If stability is to be maintained and the cycle of violence broken, root causes of the conflict must be addressed, especially unemployment and poverty,” said the Team, which comprises 89 international and national organizations, including UN agencies, under the leadership of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator.

The Team called 2013 a crucial year for assistance, and also a “year of opportunity” to focus on building Yemenis’ resilience through restoration of livelihoods and capacity building for local organizations and communities.