Experts: nearly 1 billion hungry people in world
Pastor Dale Morgan
Experts: nearly 1 billion hungry people in world*
May 6, 3:02 PM (ET)
By JENNY BARCHFIELD
PARIS (AP) - The number of hungry people in the world could soon hit a
record 1 billion, despite a recent drop in food prices, the U.N. food
aid organization said Wednesday.
The recent financial crisis, though it has helped bring global food
prices down, also has led to falling trade and lower development aid,
according to the Food and Agriculture Organization's general director,
Jacques Diouf.
As a result of the crisis, an additional 104 million people were
likely to go hungry this year - meaning they receive fewer than 1,800
calories a day, Diouf told reporters after a two-day meeting in Paris
between the FAO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development.
"We have never seen so many hungry people in the world," Diouf said.
The number of people considered hungry increased last year as well, by
40 million, and in 2007, when 75 million more people joined the ranks,
Diouf said.
If the projection for 2009 proves accurate, that would mean that
approximately 1 billion people - or roughly one-sixth of the world's
population - will hungry by the end of the year, he said.
"Food security is a matter of peace and security in the world," he
said, stressing that the food production will have to double by 2050
just to keep pace with population growth.
Despite a 30 percent drop in food prices from June 2008, overall food
prices still remain above 2006 levels, Diouf said. In the developing
world, however, food prices have dropped only 12-14 percent since June
2008, he said.
Surveys show that prices of basic staple foods in many poor countries
have barely registered any drop.
Higher food prices spurred a 12-13 percent increase in production in
wealthy countries. But developing countries - excluding giants such as
China, Brazil and India - have only seen a 0.4 percent rise in food
production, "which is totally offset by the increase in population,"
Diouf said.
Systemic problems - such as weak infrastructure and dependence on rain
- are to blame for poor nations' near-stagnant production. Bad roads
in rural areas, lack of proper food storage facilities and a lack of
irrigation infrastructure continue to keep farmers in poor countries
from producing more, Diouf said.
He and other experts at Wednesday's conference called a greater
percentage of development aid to poor countries to be spent on
agriculture.
Following the so-called Green Revolution of the 1970s - during which
crop yields and food production skyrocketed - aid money spent on
agriculture has dwindled from 17 percent of total aid to just 3
percent.
"There is no way we will solve the problem of food security in the
world if we stay in this situation," Diouf said, adding "we need to go
back to 17 percent" of development aid earmarked for agriculture.
Only such a dramatic increase will prevent acute food shortages in the
future, he warned.