JOANNA M. FOSTER

In 2008 and in 2011, the world was rocked by riots and by revolutions coinciding with spikes in food prices.

reuters // Reuters

LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Global warming will get worse as agricultural methods accelerate the rate of soil erosion, which depletes the amount of carbon the soil is able to store, a United Nations' Environment Programme report said on Monday.

Nikita Mehta

India’s forest cover decreased by 367 square kilometers between 2007 and 2009, and it was primarily tribal and hilly regions that were to blame, according to the biennial forest survey released last week by the Ministry of Environment and Forest.

JOANNA M. FOSTER

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and Farming First have produced this interactive graphic showing how women pull

The cassava plant could help African farmers cope with climate change, a scientific report says.

"It's like the Rambo of the food crops," report author Andy Jarvis, of the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture, said.

Eric Hilaire

Photographer Peter Caton talks about his visit to the Cerrado – the world's largest savannah. It contains 5% of the world's biodiversity, but is being destroyed at an incredible rate to make way for monocultures that may have devastating long-term effects.

Azad Essa

Millions of people in up to five West African countries will face a food crisis in early 2012 if early warning systems are ignored, the United Nations and aid officials say.

Associated Press

A quarter of farmland is highly degraded, according to the first report into the state of the world's land resources

The threat posed to crop production by plant pests and diseases is one the key factors that could lead to "a perfect storm" that threatens to destabilise global food security.