Almost 30% of the world’s population suffers from food insecurity, according to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which warns that countries are very far from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) included in the 2030 Agenda.
The study also points out that, despite some improvement, food prices continue at abnormally high levels, above 21% according to the latest data from 2021, when between 2015 and 2019 the average was 15.2%.
“East Asia and North Africa are the regions most impacted by abnormally high prices,” he tells Efe Jose Rosero Moncayo, director of the FAO statistics division.
The latest FAO estimates estimate that hunger affects between 691 million and 783 million people in 2022, a problem to which no country is immune, highlights Rosero Moncayo.
“Inequality and the lack of guarantees to access food are found in both rich and poor countries,” indicates the specialist, although in developed countries this insecurity is 7.6% and in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa it exceeds 67.2%. %.
The FAO has published the report on the eve of the summit to be organized by the United Nations (UN) on September 18 and 19 in New York (United States) with the aim of analyzing the status of achievement of the SDGs. whose deadline expires in 2030.
The document denounces that the still latent effects of the covid-19 pandemic, along with other similar crises such as climate change and armed conflicts, are having widespread impacts on all the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, “including poverty, food security and nutrition.” , health and Environment”.
FAO on increase in malnourished people
All of this has contributed to the fact that the progress achieved in the last two decades has stagnated, and in some cases even reversed, such as the number of undernourished people in the world, whose increase since 2015 has eroded practically all the progress made during the previous decade.
“The way forward is to transform agri-food systems with greater resilience,” defends Rosero Moncayo, because “conflicts, extreme climate events and economic oscillations are a reality that will not disappear.”
For its part, regarding agriculture, the FAO emphasizes that small farmers produce around a third of the food worldwide, but in 90% of the countries studied, these small producers receive an income of less than half of that of large farmers. exploiters.
In a third of the countries evaluated, less than 50% of men and women engaged in agricultural production have property rights over land, the document adds.
Progress to reduce the environmental impact of farming also remains “slow and uneven” across geographic regions, causing the world to remain far from maintaining the genetic diversity of plants and animals needed for food.
On the positive side of the balance, although the area occupied by forests continues to decrease, the speed with which it does so has decreased compared to previous decades, as well as the levels of “aquatic stress” remain stable since 2020.
“To ensure progress in the social, economic and environmental dimensions analyzed above, it is crucial to improve data capabilities,” concludes FAO, calling for an effort by countries to expand “essential” information collection systems to implement measures.
Source: The National
