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World hunger rose in 2021, leaving at least 2.3 billion people facing moderate to severe difficulty getting enough to eat, and that was before the war in Ukraine sent the cost of grain, fertilizer, and food skyrocketing. Energy.
The annual report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world shows how the pandemic, in particular, brought to light “the fragility of agri-food systems and inequalities”.
Since the beginning of the health crisis, at the end of 2019, the number of people without access to food increased by 150 million and in 2021 alone the increase was 46 million.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, FAO; the World Food Program, WFP; the Agricultural Development Fund, IFAD; the World Health Organization, WHO, and the Children’s Fund, UNICEF, request an urgent review of the current aid to face this “catastrophic situation”.
The statistics “should dispel any lingering doubts that the world is regressing in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms,” the study says.
“The most recent evidence available suggests that the number of people worldwide who cannot afford a healthy diet increased by 112 million to nearly 3.1 billion, reflecting the impacts of rising consumer food prices during the pandemic. “, added the heads of the five UN agencies that published the report.
Experts warn that the war in Ukraine, which started on February 24, “is disrupting supply chains and further affecting grain, fertilizer and energy prices”, which will lead to further price rises in the first half of 2022.
Likewise, more frequent and extreme weather events are also disrupting supply chains, especially in low-income countries.
Ukraine and Russia account for almost a third of world exports of wheat and barley, as well as half of sunflower oil, while Russia and its ally Belarus are the world’s No. 2 and No. 3 producers of potash, a key ingredient in fertilizers. .
with AP
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