As early as July 2007, FAO warned of the then developing food price crisis, and in December 2007, it launched its Initiative on Soaring Food Prices – known as the ISFP – to help smallholder farmers grow more food and earn more money. Since the ISFP’s inception, FAO has carried out interagency assessment missions in 58 countries (read a synthesis of the assessments).

It has worked closely with the UN High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis to produce the Comprehensive Framework for Action, a global strategy and action plan designed to soften the immediate blow of high food prices and address longer-term measures for sustainable food security.

FAO has also provided policy advice to governments (updated guide for policy action to address high food prices, French, Spanish) and scaled up its monitoring of food prices at country, regional and global level through its Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS).

In mid-2008, when international food prices had reached their highest level in 30 years, FAO launched a series of one-year emergency projects, providing smallholder farmers with improved seed varieties, fertilizers, tools and technical assistance to help them rapidly boost their food output (read an impact assessment of these projects).

This early support served as a catalyst for mobilizing additional funding. In 2009, thanks to a significant contribution from the European Union (EU), FAO began carrying out projects in 28 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean through the € 1 billion EU Food Facility.