Rising food prices are causing more and more people to go hungry in sub-Saharan Africa. My new research shows that an overlooked cause could be El Niño, a climate phenomenon in the Pacific that affects weather patterns globally.
Food inflation rates are between 20% and 50% in some African countries. Without urgent action to curb rising food prices in sub-Saharan Africa, millions more people face undernourishment and malnutrition, adding to the 239 million already affected. In a recent paper, I demonstrated that El Niño events can trigger increases in food prices and exacerbate food crises if other conditions, such as government policies, remain unchanged.
El Niño refers to a natural cycle in Earth’s climate centred on the equatorial Pacific Ocean. There are three phases: a neutral phase, El Niño (the warm phase) and La Niña (the cold phase). In the neutral phase, trade winds blow from east to west across the tropical Pacific, pushing warm surface water from South America towards Asia and Australia. Every two to seven years, this normal pattern is disrupted, leading to either an El Niño or a La Niña event.
