A report released periodically as an early warning report for Southern Africa. This issue of the report concludes that the food security situation has remained relatively stable across most of the region, with the majority of staple food commodities readily available on local markets, despite this being the peak hunger season. This is attributable to the good harvests by the majority of rural households in SADC member states in the last cropping cycle. A significant number of rural households had more stocks on hand, which enabled them to consume own produced food a little longer than normal. Nonetheless, across many rural areas, an increasing number of households are now purchasing food from markets, as many have almost depleted their own produced food stocks through consumption and/or sales. Adequate on?farm and market supplies have thus far contributed to relatively stable food prices, but rising demand is putting upward pressure on prices.