Correction appended.

Marked by extreme weather events, a devastating famine, continued support of biofuels mandates and a growing number of country agricultural partnerships, 2011 was quite a year for global food security, as the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) documents in its inaugural Global Food Policy report.

The institute released its report yesterday to document the effect of policy on food security last year and provide predictions for the future. The Sahel region of Africa and North Korea could be the next zones of insecurity and possible famine, the report finds.

"Last year, a complex set of issues affected global food security, including high and volatile food prices; disasters such as droughts, floods and earthquakes; rising greenhouse gas emissions and revised biofuel policies," said Shenggen Fan, director-general of IFPRI, at the launch event for the report.

Indeed, 2011 was riddled with setbacks, said Fan. These include record-breaking food prices in February; a famine in the Horn of Africa that affected 13 million people; and biofuel incentives in Brazil, China and India that could disrupt agricultural markets and raise prices, according to IFPRI.

But several developments last year provided hope for greater stability in the future. Many countries forged partnerships with public, private and nonprofit bodies. The private sector, emerging economies, and humanitarian organizations have stepped up in the past year, states the report. International organizations have paid more attention, as well. Agricultural ministers from the Group of 20 (G-20) countries convened in Paris last June for the first time to discuss solutions to chronic hunger and insecurity.

2011: the year of public-private partnerships

At last year's World Economic Forum, 17 food and agricultural companies -- including agricultural heavyweights Monsanto Co. and Syngenta AG -- committed to a 20-20-20 strategy: to raise agricultural output by 20 percent, reduce greenhouse gases by 20 percent and reduce the poverty rate by 20 percent in the next 10 years (ClimateWire, Jan. 31, 2011).

"Agriculture moved up higher in the international development agenda," said Fan.

China, in a partnership with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), made three-party agreements with Liberia and Senegal to provide technical assistance for sustainable food projects. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the top private foundations for agriculture funding, made key agreements with Brazil and China to support agriculture in the developing world.

"More countries committed this year" compared to previous years, said Fan. "The private sector has come to these countries to sign country agreements [and see] how they can work together to make sure smallholders benefit, make sure that the environment is protected, make sure nutrition and health are part of it."

U.S., European biofuels policy criticized

Biofuels has been a "big issue" in global food security, said Fan, a view that reflects the position of global organizations like the FAO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and humanitarian organization Oxfam.

"The first generation of biofuels does not help solve the energy problem, does not help contribute to global food security, does not help smallholders improve their income," said Fan. "But Europe and the U.S. continue to subsidize biofuels production."

At the end of last year, the U.S. biofuels industry lost the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, an incentive to blend ethanol into gasoline, as well as a 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on ethanol imports, mostly from Brazilian sugar cane. The industry continues to benefit from the national renewable fuel standard, which projects a production level of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022. Yesterday, the industry passed its last regulatory hurdle to sell E15, a 15 percent blend of ethanol in gasoline. The standard blend is 10 percent (E&ENews PM, April 23).

Industry groups have maintained that volatile food prices are closely tied to oil markets, not biofuels production.

"The rising price of energy is the primary driver in the rising cost of all commodities, including corn and sugar," said Bliss Baker, spokesman for the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance, in response to comments from the FAO director-general in January.

The Durban Platform, passed at the U.N. Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa, did not make a strong commitment to agriculture, and the future of a global climate compact remains uncertain for the next few years. Nevertheless, Fan is optimistic that a 2015 agreement will include provision for food security.

"We remain positive," said Fan. "I hope that by 2015, we will sign something."

Correction: The 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa affected 13 million people; an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that that was the number killed by the famine.