A senior UN official warned that a failure by the US and Iran to quickly approve a UN plan for shipping fertilizer through the Strait of Hormuz could plunge parts of Asia and Africa into a food security crisis, according to Reuters, in a text published by The Cradle.

“It’s absolutely crucial to get the deal in the next few weeks. Otherwise, we will miss the planting season,” UN Under-Secretary-General Jorge Moreira da Silva told Reuters in Bangkok. According to the UN analysis he cited, daily traffic through the strait has collapsed from around 130 ships before the war to just five last week, and fertilizer prices have jumped 25 to 30 percent since late February.