Don't Wanna Sleep Hungry?

Written By Kaustav Chakraborty

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” –Mahatma Gandhi

Leave no one behind – the theme for World Food Day 2022, an annual celebration on October 16th, and a strong reminder to acknowledge and highlight the millions of people worldwide who cannot afford a healthy diet and the need for regular access to nutritious food. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations aims towards a more sustainable future with World food security. The common challenges of Climate Change, economic divide, and now the Coronavirus pandemic have contributed to major problems standing as pillars of obstruction to end world hunger.

Dr QU Dongyu, the FAO Director-General enumerated several points in his speech during the opening ceremony of World Food Day 2022- interruptions to international supply chains, negative impacts on global economy with the ongoing war in Ukraine, 828 million people suffering from hunger globally, 3.1 billion people are unable to afford a healthy diet along with 193 million acutely food insecure people.

In the next 30 years, food supply and food security will be severely threatened if little or no action is taken to address climate change and the food system's vulnerability to climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the extent of climate change impacts on individual regions will vary over time, and different societal and environmental systems will have varied abilities to mitigate or adapt to change. Negative effects of climate change include the continued rise of global temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, an increased frequency of droughts and heatwaves, sea-level rise, melting of sea ice and a higher risk of more intense natural disasters.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The IPCC states, Taken as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time. Future projections in global yield trends of both maize and wheat indicate a significant decline; these declines can be attributed to the negative impacts of climate change arising from increasing greenhouse gas emissions. In many parts of less developed countries in Africa and Central America, maize is a key component in the daily diet and plays a key role in achieving food security in those areas, with nearly 950 million metric tonnes consumed annually. Wheat also plays a central role in diets. With nearly 700 million metric tonnes consumed annually on a global basis, wheat alone provides over 20 per cent of the world's calories and protein. To ensure food security for the predicted population of 9.6 billion people by 2050 the FAO predicts that food production must increase by at least 60 per cent to meet the demand, and a report from Tilman et al. in 2011 projected that food production must increase by 100 per cent to meet the projected food demand. With yields declining, and demand for both the amount and quality of food increasing (due to increased disposable income amongst developing countries) intervention is a must.

Source: Down To Earth

Several research articles pandering to the south Asian subcontinent have also investigated the adverse effects of Climate Change - Drought has been covering more than 20% of the world's agricultural areas, leading to significantly less food production than what is required for consumption, agricultural production is highly vulnerable even to 2°C predictions augmentation for global mean temperatures in 2100, groundwater overdraft impacts on agricultural drought in India and many more similar problems have been studied along with their preventive measures suggested and taken.

Some notable suggestions were –

Ø Government should develop policies to increase irrigation facilities and loan facilities to increase the total area sown that will help to increase wheat yield and ensure food security, large-scale plantations to minimize climate change impacts; new improved varieties of the wheat crop that can survive and flourish in the presence of adverse climatic changes, high temperature, and high wind speed.

Ø Sustainable regional planning for fighting issues caused by drought, groundwater overdraft, irrigation problems, rain scarce areas.

Ø Soil dryness should be alleviated during the germination and seedling stages in low-latitude areas; and irrigation and cooling should be maintained.

Source: The Indian Wire

Governments worldwide have taken several steps to achieve zero-world hunger index –

Ø Govt. of India - Distribution of additional free-of-cost foodgrains (Rice/Wheat) to about 80 Crore National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries at the scale of 5 Kg per person per month under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY), over and above the regular monthly NFSA foodgrains i.e., regular entitlements of their ration cards. Thereby, effectively doubling the quantity of monthly foodgrains being normally delivered to the NFSA households, so that the poor, needy and the vulnerable households/beneficiaries do not suffer on account of non-availability of adequate foodgrains during the times of economic crisis.

Ø South Korean Government- allocation of KRW 73.3bn to be used for national food and agricultural R&D projects throughout the rest of 2022, mostly focused on food technology and food system sustainability, strategy modelling for agri-food exports, etc.

Ø distributing €500 million euro in national allocations to directly support farmers most affected by higher input costs and the closure of export markets (EU countries can complement this support up to 200% with national funds); allowing EU countries to pay increased levels of CAP direct payments in advance, to address cash-flow difficulties currently faced by farmers.

Ø The FAO director general has also stated their interests in investing in small scale production farms, and support local farmers everywhere.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Through analytics, decision makers are now equipped with the insights they need to manage their operations in the best way, thereby saving and changing the lives of millions and bringing the world one step closer to zero hunger. There is a lot to be achieved yet, and we have overcome a lot as we came along with time. Food and Nutrition is the very basic human need and right – hence ensuring food security and identifying all threats that stand against it is the first and foremost priority of all organizations worldwide – no one should have to go to bed hungry at the end of the day.

Edited By Shreyoshi De and Shrobona De