A map of hunger in 2015 - where to watch

IRIN: Food shortages are often portrayed as random – the result of freak weather conditions or short-term political crises. Yet they are often deeply predictable – while short-term trends can exaggerate the impact, most of the causes are structural.

Last week the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS Net) released its latest forward-looking analysis of food needs in key countries. The data track not just which countries are likely to have food shortages this year but when they are likely to occur.

IRIN's interactive map highlights countries that are particularly prone to crisis. Click on a country to see how many people are at risk, the level of crisis and when the potential lean season is.

FEWS Net doesn’t cover all countries with food crises. Syria, India, and Iraq, for example are excluded. This is partly due to FEWS Net's  background - it was founded in Africa - and also partly because in the case of Syria and Iraq these trends are still new.

FEWS Net uses the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification to grade crises into five categories, from “minimal” to “famine.”...

Map of Sahel countries by , Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license