The Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS) continuously monitors food supply and demand and other key indicators for assessing the overall food security situation in all countries of the world. It issues regular analytical and objective reports on prevailing conditions and provides early warnings of impending food crises at country or regional level. At the request of national authorities, GIEWS supports countries in gathering evidence for policy decisions, or planning by development partners, through its Crop and Food Security Assessment Missions (CFSAMs), fielded jointly with WFP. In country-level application of tools for earth observation and price monitoring, GIEWS also strengthens national capacities in managing food security related information.
For detailed information on the objectives, working arrangements and publications of the system, you can
download the GIEWS flyer in PDF format
Data & Tools
GIEWS collects various data to support its own technical activities. However, as these datasets are a valuable resource also to support countries in gathering evidence for policy decisions, or planning by development partners, GIEWS, together with other FAO units, has developed several web-based tools to facilitate widespread access and analysis of the data.
Country Cereal Balance Sheet (CCBS)
The Country Cereal Balance Sheet (CCBS) system is a unique database created and continuously kept up to date by GIEWS/Basic Foodstuffs Team of the Markets and Trade Division, with data since 1980. It contains annual supply and utilization balances for the main cereals produced and consumed for over 220 countries/areas, from which (sub) regional and global aggregates are drawn.
Historical estimates of the primary elements of the balances (production, trade, food use, closing stocks, food aid, etc.) are based on information collected from governments, NGOs, other UN agencies, research institutions, the international press and private companies/individuals. For the latest year/season and/or where government assessments are not readily available, the data reported constitutes analyses/short-term forecasts conducted by country officers and commodity specialists. All figures are subject to revision, since elements are continuously updated and resulting balances/aggregates released based on a monthly schedule. For historical figures, changes may be due to the release of revisions to official data, while for the forecast year, revisions may reflect changing market conditions. The data processing procedure on other non-primary elements of the balances follows the common practice of commodity balance sheets.
The population figures across CCBS/XCBS are updated following the release of the UN population projections dataset: https://population.un.org/wpp/Download/Standard/Population/, with slight adjustment on the Russian Federation and Ukraine since 2015.
To access the data:
- World level: World Food Situation web portal.
- Major producing/importing/exporting countries: Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) website
- Sub-Saharan African countries: GIEWS Cereal supply and demand balances for sub-Saharan African countries report.
- Selected countries: statistical tables in GIEWS Food Outlook and Crop Prospects and Food Situation reports.
The Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) Tool went online in 2009. As of January 2024, the database includes over 2100 monthly domestic retail and/or wholesale price series of major foods consumed in 126 countries and weekly/monthly prices for 88 internationally traded foods. The Tool provides easy access to the data, allowing users to quickly browse and analyse trends of single price series, create comparisons among countries/markets/commodities, and download charts, data and basic statistics such as maximum and minimum levels, averages, percentage changes and standard deviations over different time periods.
To support its analysis and supplement ground-based information, GIEWS utilizes remote sensing data that can provide a valuable insight on water availability and vegetation health during cropping seasons. In addition to rainfall estimates and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), GIEWS and FAO OCB Division have developed the Agricultural Stress Index (ASI), a quick-look indicator for early identification of agricultural areas probably affected by dry spells, or drought in extreme cases.
A short introductory video about the Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS)
Food aid shipments transaction data (1988-2016) was provided by WFP and GIEWS re-processed the data according to FAO needs. Aforementioned data is available through the FAOSTAT website.
Country Analysis
Regular updates of information on the food security situation at national/sub-national level.
A list GIEWS issues four times a year of countries in crisis requiring external assistance for food.
A list GIEWS issues four times a year of countries with unfavourable prospects for current crops.
A list GIEWS issues every month of countries where prices of one or more basic food commodity are at abnormal high levels in main markets.
Regular Reports
A triannual publication focusing on developments affecting the food situation of developing countries and in particular the Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs).
A biannual publication focusing on developments affecting global food and feed markets.
A triannual statistical publication which contains a subset of FAO/GIEWS Country Cereal Balance System (CCBS) data. The report complements the information of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation report.
Reports on recent food price developments at world, regional and country level with a focus on developing countries.
Special Reports and Alerts
Short reports that describe anomalous food supply and agricultural situation in countries or subregions.
Short reports that describe an alarming food security situation that is developing in countries or sub-regions.
Reports which are often the result of Crop and Food Security Assessment Missions (CFSAMs) or rapid evaluation missions.
Reports with GIEWS Contributions
Weather and Climate
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A collection of countries' market baseline information.