Global agriculture: news that made the headlines

Farmer protests, droughts and floods dominated international agricultural news throughout 2024. Here, Janine Ryan gives an overview of these challenges.

- Janine Ryan

South Africa and many other parts of the world have suffered drought this year, which has led to a decline in initial grain and oilseed forecasts.

From a public perspective, drought is usually overlooked as a severe natural phenomenon; thunderstorms and tornadoes are far more dramatic. However, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification described droughts as among the most expensive and deadly global hazards, adding that by 2050, four out of every five people will have been impacted by drought in some way or another.

According to the European Commission (EC), in July 2024, global temperatures reached historic highs, with an average temperature of 17,16°C. This was particularly problematic for farmers.

“This extreme heat led soil water to evaporate, leaving vegetation and biodiversity more fragile and under stress in many regions of the world. This, combined with unusually low rain levels, caused major river basins like the Amazon, La Plata, and Zambezi to have lower-than-normal water flows, impacting economies and the broader ecosystems they are part of,” the EC said in a statement on its website.