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With research staff from more than 70 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

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Lilia Bliznashka

Lily Bliznashka is a Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit. Her research focuses on assessing the effectiveness of multi-input nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions and the mechanisms through which they work to improve maternal and child health and nutrition globally. She has worked in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda.

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TOPIC

Food Prices

The world is currently facing another period of volatile and rising food and commodity prices stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, similar to levels witnessed in 2007/08 and 2010/11, and adding to pandemic-related disruptions at a time when high levels of poverty and income inequality have put healthy diets out of reach for 3 billion people worldwide. IFPRI’s new Policy Seminar Series on Food and Fertilizer Price Trends is bringing experts together to discuss the potential impacts of rising prices and policy responses on global food security and nutrition. When food prices rise, food producers and policymakers must respond quickly, but producers are often unprepared to meet increased demand and policymakers lack the evidence-based macroeconomic policy tools needed to take action. Given the differing implications of high and volatile food prices across regions and populations, policy responses must be developed and adapted to country-specific needs and conditions.

… read more

IFPRI has developed innovative food policy analysis tools—such as the Excessive Food Price Variability Early Warning System and the Food Security Portal—to provide stakeholders and policymakers with international, regional, and country-level data, news, and evidence-based research to inform development of food policies in their respective countries. IFPRI’s work on price volatility and its transmission from international to local markets is continuously improving policy analysis and is used by international networks such as the Agricultural Market Information Systems (AMIS) and the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).IFPRI’s new Policy Seminar Series on Food and Fertilizer Price Trends is bringing experts together to discuss the potential impacts of rising prices and policy responses on global food security and nutrition.

Click here for IFPRI Policy Seminar Series on 2021/22 high food and fertilizer prices and here for IFPRI Blogs.

IFPRI’s research on this topic is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 10, and SDG 12.

food_prices

topics

Publications

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Journal Article

Food subsidies in India: Revisiting the estimates

2026Narayanan, Sudha; Saha, Shree
Details

Food subsidies in India: Revisiting the estimates

There is a view that the fis­cal bur­den of food sub­si­dies in India is un­sus­tain­able. Yet pop­u­lar de­bate and dis­cus­sion around the costs of these food sub­si­dies, rel­a­tive to their ben­e­fits, are mis­lead­ing for two rea­sons. First, they typ­i­cally treat re­ported bud­getary sub­sidy es­ti­mates—i.e. the fis­cal cost to the gov­ern­ment of the dis­tri­b­u­tion of food via ra­tion shops—as equiv­a­lent to “trans­fers” to ben­e­fi­cia­ries. Sec­ondly, they tend to focus ex­clu­sively on con­sumers. In doing so, they ne­glect the two-part na­ture of the food dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem, which in­cludes pay­ments to farm­ers at the time of pro­cure­ment. This paper ex­am­ines ways of mea­sur­ing the costs and value of the food sub­sidy. We pre­sent es­ti­mates that com­bine the im­plicit value of ben­e­fits to con­sumers aris­ing from the re­duced price of grain sold to con­sumers via ra­tion shops, with im­plicit ben­e­fits to farm­ers, in terms of the price dif­fer­ence be­tween what farm­ers are paid by the gov­ern­ment and what they would have ob­tained in the open mar­ket. This ap­proach shows that each rupee of the “food sub­sidy” re­ported in gov­ern­ment ac­counts rep­re­sents a trans­fer worth Rs 1.29 to con­sumers and farm­ers, on av­er­age, over the pe­riod 2001–02 to 2022–23. That is, each rupee trans­ferred to these groups is as­so­ci­ated with a cost of Rs 0.79 to the gov­ern­ment.

Year published

2026

Authors

Narayanan, Sudha; Saha, Shree

Citation

Narayanan, Sudha; and Saha, Shree. 2026. Food subsidies in India: Revisiting the estimates. Review of Agrarian Studies 16(1). 14 p. http://ras.org.in/food_subsidies_in_india

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Subsidies; Food Aid; Social Protection; Fiscal Policies; Cost Benefit Analysis; Cash Transfers

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Journal Article

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Report

Myanmar monthly food price report – February 2026

2026Htar, May Thet; Minten, Bart; Masias, Ian
Details

Myanmar monthly food price report – February 2026

Rice prices in February 2026 remained significantly lower year-on-year (down 13 percent), although they increased slightly month-on-month, indicating an early recovery following several months of decline driven by lower international prices and increased domestic supply. While easing pressure on consumers, these trends continue to raise concerns for paddy producers facing rising input costs. Export crop prices strengthened this month, with pulses and maize increasing month-on-month supported by the revised foreign exchange policy and stronger international market demand. Vegetable prices showed mixed year-on-year trends but increased month-on-month, partly driven by seasonal demand during the Tabaung festival period. Supply disruptions, including weather-related production impacts, also influenced price movements for key crops such as potato and chili. Animal-sourced food prices continued to rise sharply year-on-year, led by mutton, chicken, and fish, reflecting supply constraints, disease outbreaks, and strong export demand. The war in Iran has led to a partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than a quarter of the world’s oil exports and 20–30 percent of global fertilizer exports pass. These developments are especially concerning for Myanmar’s agrifood system, which depends heavily on fuel for transport, irrigation, mechanization, and processing. In addition, disruptions in fertilizer supply could adversely affect the upcoming monsoon season.

Year published

2026

Authors

Htar, May Thet; Minten, Bart; Masias, Ian

Citation

Htar, May Thet; Minten, Bart; and Masias, Ian. 2026. Myanmar monthly food price report – February 2026. Myanmar Monthly Food Price Report February 2026. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/182347

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Food Prices; Food Security; Crops; Agricultural Marketing; Rice

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Report

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Working Paper

Cooling technologies and long-term efficiency improvement of horticulture market agents: Panel data evidence from a solar-powered cold storage intervention in Nigeria

2026Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Bawa, Dauda; Balana, Bedru
Details

Cooling technologies and long-term efficiency improvement of horticulture market agents: Panel data evidence from a solar-powered cold storage intervention in Nigeria

Modern cooling technologies that use renewable energy sources have been increasingly recognized as a promising tool to address a multitude of challenges emerging in progressively complex food systems in developing countries. When provided as cold storage inside horticulture markets, cooling technologies can contribute to improved quality of products and strengthened vertical linkages. Knowledge gaps about the medium- to long-term impacts of these technologies in developing countries remain, especially in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA). This study partly fills this knowledge gap by revisiting the 2021 short-term impact evaluation study (Takeshima et al. 2023) to assess the medium- to longer term impacts of interventions in northeast Nigeria in which 7 small solar-powered cold storages were installed across 7 horticulture markets. Combinations of difference-in-difference and variants of propensity score-based methods suggest that using cold storage significantly increased horticulture sales volumes and revenues of market agents. Using cold storage also reduced the share of food loss and lengthened the products’ shelf-life while raising prices received by both market agents and farmers, which were associated with improved product quality, expanded value-adding activities by market agents, and increased use of advance payments. We find no evidence of negative spillover effects inside horticulture markets. Observed effects are driven by the technical improvements that raise the efficiency of the use of purchased raw commodities, enabled by cold storage, based on modified efficiency analyses. At the same time, the efficiency of cold storage use remains low despite some improvement over time, and scopes exist to enhance this efficiency.

Year published

2026

Authors

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Bawa, Dauda; Balana, Bedru

Citation

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Bawa, Dauda; and Balana, Bedru B. 2026. Cooling technologies and long-term efficiency improvement of horticulture market agents: Panel data evidence from a solar-powered cold storage intervention in Nigeria. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2409. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Solar Energy; Cold Storage; Horticulture; Markets; Efficiency; Food Storage; Food Preservation; Food Losses; Food Systems

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

Will the Iran crisis lead to another round of food price spikes?
Issue Post
 | 
April 07, 2026

Will the Iran crisis lead to another round of food price spikes?

By Shawn Arita and Joseph Glauber

Key differences from past crises.

AReNA’s groundbreaking research on links between agriculture, nutrition, and healthy diets
Research Post
 | 
September 11, 2025

AReNA’s groundbreaking research on links between agriculture, nutrition, and healthy diets

By Tamsin Zandstra and Derek Headey

Marshaling data for food system policy insights.

New U.S. tariff policies: What’s at stake for sub-Saharan Africa?
Issue Post
 | 
May 06, 2025

New U.S. tariff policies: What’s at stake for sub-Saharan Africa?

By Valeria Piñeiro, Juan Pablo Gianatiempo, Fousseini Traoré, and Joseph Glauber

Risks and possible benefits of a chaotic global trade environment.

View all Blogs

Events

Launch of the Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM) 2025
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

December 16, 2025, 12:00 – 2:00 pm

Launch of the Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM) 2025

AKADEMIYA2063 and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in partnership with AGRA, are convening a hybrid launch event to unveil and discuss the findings of the Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM) 2025. This annual publication monitors and highlights trends in African agrifood trade, including intra-African trade, the continent’s participation in global trade, insights into […]

Navigating the Food Security Nexus: Commodity Prices, Inflation, and Exchange Rates
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

October 21, 2025, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Navigating the Food Security Nexus: Commodity Prices, Inflation, and Exchange Rates

Join us for a seminar exploring the complex interplay between global food commodity prices and domestic food price inflation, and the implications for food security. Drawing on recent analytical work and market monitoring, the session will examine how international price movements transmit through domestic markets, often exacerbated by exchange rate fluctuations and macroeconomic volatility.  Fluctuations […]

Fertilizer, soil health, and economic shocks: Policy lessons learned from recent events
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

June 11, 2025, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Fertilizer, soil health, and economic shocks: Policy lessons learned from recent events

Join us for a discussion of key findings from a recent special issue of Food Policy exploring the complex interactions between fertilizer use, soil health management, and economic shocks in various agricultural systems. Governments around the world have long implemented policies to enhance agricultural productivity through inorganic fertilizer application and soil management, yet recent global […]

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News

April 12, 2026 | In the News

Could the Iran war pose lasting risks to global food security? (Al Jazeera)

Avinash Kishore, IFPRI senior research fellow in New Delhi, was interviewed for the Al Jazeera’s “Inside Story” program on the Iran war risks to global food security.

April 10, 2026 | In the News

The Iran war’s agriculture shock isn’t over yet (Foreign Policy)

Foreign Policy quotes IFPRI’s Joseph Glauber who notes that energy inputs are built into food costs at nearly every step, from production and processing through transportation and retail.

April 02, 2026 | In the News

The Gulf built a fertilizer superpower. Now it’s under strain (WIRED Middle East)

WIRED.me quotes Charlotte Hebebrand in the article focusing on the the Gulf fertilizer industry—and why the ongoing escalating conflict is putting global food systems under strain.

View all News

Our experts

Joseph Glauber

Joseph Glauber

Research Fellow Emeritus , Director
General's Office (DGO)

Manuel Hernandez

Manuel Hernandez

Senior Research Fellow, Markets,
Trade, and Institutions, Latin America and the Caribbean

Brendan Rice

Brendan Rice

Research Specialist, Markets,
Trade, and Institutions

Razin Kabir

Razin Kabir

Senior Program Manager, Poverty,
Gender, and Inclusion

Nicholas Minot

Nicholas Minot

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Markets,
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Charlotte Hebebrand

Charlotte Hebebrand

Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Communications
and Public Affairs (CPA)