Sacks of rice are unloaded at Manila port as rice prices hit a record high.

Rarely can World Food Day have been the focus of such attention; the rising cost of food and the ongoing global financial crisis have been two of the biggest news stories of 2008. The subject of food security and scarcity has received more column inches than perhaps at any time since the unforgettable African famines of the early 1980s.

But the challenges today are of a different scope, something reflected in this year’s theme: challenges of climate change and bioenergy. World Food Day activities “aim at expanding global awareness in an effort to reduce the effects of increasingly severe climate patterns on agriculture and the impact of biofuels on food production.”

The statistics make for gloomy reading: the number of undernourished people suffering from hunger is currently estimated at more than 850 million, world grain stocks are at a historic low and global inflation in food, as measured by the international food price index, increased by 40% in 2007 (compared with a 9% increase in 2006 – the dramatic rise continued in 2008).

Added to this, investment in biofuels by developed countries and speculative trading in agricultural commodities following the credit crunch has led to huge price fluctuations over and above traditional market forces of supply and demand.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) yesterday warned governments to resist introducing protectionist trade measures in response to the financial crisis, but to keep investing in aid to agriculture in developing countries. A renewed commitment to supporting developing nations’ agriculture and eradicating hunger is the goal.

In this context, the BBC World Service Trust is looking at building on past work on issues of food security and livelihoods.

The BBC World Service Trust recently launched a malnutrition project with the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), which extends our existing Hausa language programmes Gatanan Gatanan Ku/Muttatau Na to new audiences across the Sahel region (delivered by the BBC World Service Hausa Service and new partners in Niger Radio Anfani and R&M).

This is an opportunity to bring a consistency and wide, cross-border reach to the messages which NGOs are currently disseminating to populations on the ground in an area with particularly high levels of malnutrition.

Niger is a country particularly vulnerable to issues of food security both because of its sub-Saharan location and its status as one of the world’s poorest countries. Risks from climate change and a near-total reliance on the agricultural and livestock sectors make Niger a top priority for those tackling malnutrition and hunger in Africa.

Previous BBC World Service Trust work in Africa includes a livelihoods project in Somalia featuring a weekly magazine-style radio programme Barnaamijka Xoolaha (“The Livestock Programme”) covering issues of animal husbandry, health, vaccination and market prices.

Elsewhere on the web, the BBC World Service’s World Food Price Watch features reports from around the world on the impact of soaring prices, the UK Guardian has a useful food focus, Reuters news service explains “Agflation” and the UN FAO newsroom keeps you up to date.