Climate change is making extreme events more frequent in many parts of the world, and a paper published in Nature Communications shows that regions that have never experienced extreme temperatures may be more vulnerable when exposed to risk. The more vulnerable regions need to reassess their ability to adequately adapt.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are having a huge impact on our societies and ecosystems. In April, researchers from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) published a paper in Science on the need to address both the interlinked climate change and biodiversity crises.

On April 21, the World Meteorological Organization released its 2022 Global Climate White Paper, noting that climate change is progressing, with societies on every continent being hit hard by extreme weather events, Antarctic sea ice is at an all-time low, and the melting of European glaciers is accelerating.

On April 18, the European Parliament adopted a policy to promote ambitious greenhouse gas emission reductions within the region and ambitious targets for non-EU member states to reach 2030 climate targets. As a major global influence in setting rules on climate change and environmental measures, Europe's actions are likely to have a significant impact on the policies and strategies of countries around the world.

In April, the flagship report of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on global food policy for 2023 was released. This year's subtitle is "Rethinking Food Crisis Responses".

Excessive use of chemical fertilizers on farmland upsets the balance of the nitrogen cycle in nature, polluting groundwater and rivers and contributing to global warming. Reducing nitrogen pollution is urgent, but the millions of small and large agricultural plots scattered around the world pose a significant challenge. A paper published earlier this year in Nature reviewed reports from around the world and identified 11 measures that could significantly reduce nitrogen runoff from farmland into air and water, while increasing crop yields and improving nitrogen use efficiency.

As fertilizer resources continue to be depleted and soar in prices, the use of farmyard manure derived from locally available organic materials is attracting attention to achieve increased food production in infertile soils widely distributed in Africa. In order to use farmyard manure to efficiently improve crop growth, it is important to know where and what kind of farmyard manure to apply. A research team from JIRCAS and the University of Antananarivo conducted rice cultivation trials in a poor-nutrient paddy field in Madagascar to determine the characteristics of the paddy soil and the farmyard manure that are more likely to increase yield when applied to the paddy fields.

The resilience and sustainability of food systems depend heavily on crop diversity. Many breeding scientists use crop diversity to develop new varieties and farmers to diversify risk. On March 27, PNAS published a special issue on conservation of crop genetic resource diversity.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released on April 7 the World Food Price Index for March 2023, averaging 126.9 points, down 2.1% from the previous month, the 12th consecutive monthly decline, and 32.8 points (20.5%) lower than the high reached a year ago in March 2022. The decline reflected fall in cereal, vegetable oil, and dairy price indeces. On the other hand, depending on developments in international logistics for Russian grains and fertilizers, the impact of the food supply chain disruption caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine may be prolonged.