A three-day UN summit that was held in Rome shares some shocking facts: in a world where 780 million people go hungry and 462 million are underweight, over two billion (or 25 per cent of the world’s population) are overweight or obese. The UN secretary-general shared that nearly one-third of the world’s food is lost or wasted. Estimates by the World Food Programme (WFP) reveal that the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war, and weather shocks have pushed the number of people facing hunger up by 122 million. There is enough evidence that suggests that the effects of the food crisis will be more pronounced in the coming years. A report titled ‘The climate change crisis: Understanding the trends affecting an unpredictable future’ published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in July says that rising food prices are causing more inflation in Europe than other factors (high energy prices, etc). Climate-induced disasters will also lead to low crop yield. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported a 2.8 per cent hike in its rice price index. World rice prices have shot up in the wake of India’s ban on rice export. India accounts for 40 per cent of world rice exports. This ban was announced to control domestic prices.
These facts point to one thing: countries ought to work together to tackle the growing food and hunger crisis. Developed countries that have the funds and means to secure developing countries’ crop output should also help these countries rebuild the crop fields they lost during floods and other apocalyptic climate events. Pakistan's Minister of Climate Sherry Rehman has repeatedly pointed out that access to climate finance is a big challenge for developing countries. The UN secretary-general also thinks that distributing $500 billion annually to needy countries can play a big role in providing food to people in these countries. Unless the world seriously considers allotting sufficient funds for poor countries, the food and hunger crisis cannot be tackled. The need to manage food systems in a more sustainable manner is obvious. More developed countries must begin efforts in this regard.
Given the technological advancements in the field of agriculture, it is nearly impossible to fail to tackle the hunger crisis. World organizations have been raising alarm bells for quite some time now; it is now on countries to stop ignoring the issue. There has to be some mechanism to handle unequal wealth distribution and avert climate events that have hit weak nations hard. The time to act is now.
