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Hunger Hides: Here and There
Alka Singhal
GIS Development
alka.singhal@gisdevelopment.net
Action is required to identify solutions for meeting future world food needs while reducing poverty and protecting the environment.
A millennium free from hunger- this is the theme for World Food Day 2000 to be observed on October 16 as per the announcement of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). In the present world, around 800 million people worldwide are suffering from hunger. According to FAO, the number of people was reduced by eight million per year during the first half of 1990s. If this trend continues, nearly 700 million people will suffer from chronic hunger in the year 2015. The number of malnourished children was 160 million in 1995 which will decline by only 15% as it is estimated to be 135 million in 2020. As per the estimate of the International Food Policy Research Institute, although the number of malnourished children in the developing world as a whole declined from 204 million in 1970 to 167 million in 1995, the actual number of malnourished children is still rising in many countries. Hunger and micronutrient deficiencies decrease children's learning capacity by up to 10% and cost developing countries up to $128 billions in productivity losses alone.
The world's population has crossed 6 billion in 1999 and despite a small slowdown in the growth rate, it continues to grow by 80 million annually. Feeding them would require about 30 million tonnes of additional grains annually or 71,000 tons per day. In a World Bank assessment, against researcher's expectation of grain yields of 1.5 to 1.7%, yields between 1990 and 1995 rose only by 1%. According to International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the world farmers will have to produce 40 percent more grains in 2020. Increases in cultivated areas are expected to contribute only one-fifth of the global cereal production needed to meet the demand. Higher crop yields will be required to fulfill the necessary production increase.
Sustainable Food and Nutrition
Sustainable food and nutritional security should ensure that every individual has physical, economic, social and environmental access to a balanced diet that includes the necessary macro and micro-nutrients, safe drinking water, sanitation, environmental hygiene, primary health care, and education so as to lead a healthy and productive life. The principal operational implications of the above mission statement are the following:
- Physically, the demand of food and its security will involve a transition from chemical and machinery-intensive to knowledge and labour-intensive farming technologies. There is a necessity for providing accurate, comprehensive and concise knowledge resources for agriculture. Also it requires better seeds, soil management and other improved practices.
- Economically, food and nutritional security require the promotion of sustainable livelihoods through multiple income-earning opportunities, such as agroprocessing and agribusiness. There is a need to concentrate on the production of cash crops.
- Socially, food and nutrition requires addressing gender, class, and ethnic discrimination against marginalised sector of society, who consequently tend to be the most food and nutritionally insecure.
- Ecologically and environmentally, food and
nutritional security involve attention to soil health care, water
harvesting management, and the conservation of biodiversity, as
well as to sanitation, environmental hygiene, primary health care,
and education. Management of land with sustainable agricultural
practices would help in protecting the environment.
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