8.5% of the population suffers from hunger in Asia

According to new data from the FAO report, between 2021 and 2022 the malnutrition rate decreased slightly on the continent. But 402 million people still suffer from severe food deprivation, 58 million more Asians than before the pandemic. The positive effects of the economic recovery were nullified by the food price crisis generated by the war in Ukraine.

New York () – Between 690 and 783 million people suffered from hunger in the world in 2022. This is 122 million more people than before the Covid-19 pandemic, but 3.8 million less than in 2021. Thus This is indicated by data from the FAO annual report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023” (“The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023“, known by the acronym SOFI), the study considered globally as a reference on hunger trends in the world. Unlike other areas of the globe, moderate and severe food insecurity did not decrease significantly in Asia between 2021 and 2022, in particularly in the southern sub-region, but thanks to the economic recovery, in the future there could be important improvements in the levels of hunger in the continent.

However, according to the document of the UN organization that deals with food, although the levels of hunger in the world remained practically unchanged between 2021 and 2022, the rate of malnutrition, around 9.2%, continues being high compared to the figures prior to the 2019 crisis, when it stood at 7.9%.

Despite some progress in parts of Asia and Latin America, hunger is increasing in East Asia, the Caribbean, and some sub-regions of Africa. Undernourishment, which had been increasing in Asia since 2017, slowed slightly in 2022, from 8.8% in 2021 to 8.5%. This is a decrease of 12 million people in absolute terms, but it is still an excess of 58 million compared to pre-Covid levels. The greatest improvements were registered in South Asia – where, however, the level of malnutrition remains at 15.6% – while in East Asia the situation worsened: last year, at least 2 million people joined the ranks of those who suffer from lack of food. Although Asia has a rate of undernourishment that is half that of Africa, in absolute terms it is home to the largest number of undernourished people: 402 million, that is, 55% of the people who suffered from hunger in the world in 2022.

The driver of change is increasing urbanization, which increases the availability of cheap, ready-to-eat food, but it is often high in fat, sugar and salt, contributing to malnutrition. The scarcity of fruits and vegetables, the exclusion of small farmers and the loss of land are other negative factors linked to the progressive concentration of the population in the metropolis. But this change also presents opportunities, as income-generating activities increase, especially for women and youth, and the variety of food products. In addition, farmers often have better access to the means of production.

According to current projections, some 600 million people will still suffer from chronic malnutrition in 2030. In a scenario in which the pandemic and the war in Ukraine had not occurred, at least 119 million fewer people would have been affected than this number, the UN noted. The slight economic recovery after the pandemic in 2021 was slowed by the outbreak of war in Europe, which affected two of the world’s largest exporters of agricultural products, Ukraine and Russia. Food prices peaked in March 2022 and remain high, particularly hurting countries dependent on food imports. Due to the increase in the prices of fertilizers (mainly exported from Russia), food imports came to cost US$2 trillion in 2022, an increase of 10% over the previous year and a trend that is expected to continue in the coming years. years.

The stagnation of hunger levels around the world, the report explains, is due to global economic dynamics: while there has been an increase in employment in low-income countries as the economy recovers, now the rise in food prices is eroding past gains and worsening access to food. In the long term, however, according to the FAO, many households could adapt their consumption patterns and farmers could even see an improvement in their situation by benefiting from the increase in prices for their products.

However, the situation is not uniform everywhere: in Western Asia, for example, many countries have benefited from increased oil revenues, but this has not always translated into decreased hunger due to political instability and to rising inflation. In South Asia, by contrast, persistent economic growth, especially in the agricultural sector, has probably outpaced inflation, contributing to a general improvement in food security conditions. Several governments in the region have also adopted policy measures that contributed to the general improvement, such as the provision of fertilizers, the granting of cereal subsidies to vulnerable groups of the population, and the reduction of customs duties on grain imports. With these advances, the number of undernourished people in Asia could be drastically reduced to 242 million by 2030.