Hungry planet

How far are we from meeting the challenge of eradicating global hunger? According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018 report, very far. One in every nine people in the world goes hungry. Hunger has been on the rise in the last three years, taking us back to hunger levels that were seen a decade ago. The reversal suggests that the world is far from meeting its commitment to Zero Hunger by 2030. Around 821 million went hungry in 2017. The growth of over 150 million children has been stunted. Little progress has been made on key issues around malnutrition, including childhood stunting and adult obesity. That the situation has worsened in the Middle East is not a surprise. Worryingly, though, the situation has also worsened in South America, Africa and the Pacific. In Asia, the improvement shown in malnutrition figures has stagnated, and the continent still has the largest number of hungry people followed by Africa. The alarming levels of food insecurity require concrete action from governments and international organisations.

The report has also zoomed in on the role of climate change to explain the rise in food insecurity. Climate-related variations are a significant cause for growing hunger. Is there enough will power to tackle the climate-related food crisis? In Pakistan alone, the current year has been marked by low rainfall, which has created a drought-like condition in Sindh and Balochistan, in addition to its impact on crop production throughout the country. Similar variations are now witnessed frequently on a global scale. Countries that previously were producing food in surplus are now facing shortages. Droughts and floods are key reasons for the increase in food insecurity. The response requires us to be more adept at understanding the challenges. Agriculture will need to be made more responsive to climate variations. Crop cultivation patterns are also likely to need to change, with more resilient crops grown. Agricultural systems that are sensitive to rainfall and temperature variability are more vulnerable. Despite these variations, there is little excuse for why the world has done so poorly to address malnutrition. Asia has done particularly poorly for children. One in 10 children in the continent is malnourished compared to one in 100 in Latin America. The fact is that the warning signs have been there for some time. We have just chosen not to act.