Thematic area 03
Food Aid & Agricultural Support
The need
The Global Report on Food Crises 2026 found that 266 million people across 47 countries and territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025 — almost 23 percent of the population analysed, and nearly double the share recorded in 2016. For the first time in the report's ten-year history, two famines were confirmed in the same year, in parts of the Gaza Strip and Sudan.
Conflict was the primary driver, affecting 147.4 million people across 19 countries, and more than 85 million people were forcibly displaced in food-crisis contexts. The report also warns the true scale of need is likely understated: funding cuts and access restrictions produced the lowest data coverage in a decade.
The evidence on what to do is clear
Up to 17 times
greater food-security outcomes when in-kind food assistance is combined with support for emergency agricultural production, versus food aid alone. That is why we treat food aid and agricultural support as one integrated area, not two.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
What we do
Through local partners we:
Deliver food assistance to families in acute need — in kind or through cash and vouchers, targeted by assessed need alone and aligned to IPC classifications where available.
Protect the coming harvest during a crisis with emergency seeds, tools, and planting support, so this season's food aid does not become next season's dependency.
Support smallholder farming families with inputs, training, and post-harvest storage to reduce losses and raise the food available to households and markets.
Support livestock health and restocking where herds are families' main asset and food source.
Prevent and treat malnutrition alongside food assistance, in coordination with our health work.
How we measure it
We measure household food consumption and coping before and after assistance, harvests protected or restored per dollar invested, post-harvest losses avoided, and the share of assistance delivered on time within the agricultural calendar — because a seed delivered after planting season is a failure however well it is documented.