Latin America facing a triple challenge: hunger, poverty and food production

The context of successive international crises, including the war in Ukraine, is jeopardizing Latin America and the Caribbean’s access to food and key inputs for regional agriculture, according to a new report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Caribbean (ECLAC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP).

“The impacts of the war in Ukraine on the productive sectors must be understood in the context of the various crises that have affected the world economy in the last 15 years: the financial crisis of 2008, the trade tensions between the United States and China and, since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, ”says the agency’s study.

In the same way, it warns that the prolongation of these crises, where various threats of a productive, commercial, climatic and geopolitical nature coincide, not only endanger food security, but could also lead to regional and global setbacks in terms of poverty, inequality, climate action and sustainable development.

“Rises in international food and input prices affect both exporting countries and net importers of food. In addition, the region imports more than 80% of the fertilizers used in agriculture. A reduction in the yields and harvests of key products for food security due to less fertilization would add to the harmful effects of food inflation on the most vulnerable population,” said the executive secretary of the Commission, José Manuel Salazar- Xirinachs.

The three organizations called for strengthening agricultural production and social protection systems and extending their reach to rural areas in response to the triple challenge of combating food insecurity, the increase in extreme poverty, and support for the production of food in the region.

The document adds that inflation in the food sector increases the risk of problems of access to a healthy diet, food insecurity and hunger, since it affects households with lower incomes more pronouncedly.

“Food prices have increased more than general inflation in the region since the end of 2018 and have accelerated as of May 2020. The 12-month regional food price index reached 11.7% in September 2022, compared to 7.1% in the case of general inflation”, warns the study

Hunger during the 2019-2021 triennium

The deputy director general and regional representative of the FAO for Latin America and the Caribbean, recalled that “hunger increased in the region by 30% between 2019 and 2021. The high dependence on the importation of fertilizers and the variation in food prices have a negative and unavoidable impact on livelihoods, mainly of the rural population, and on access to a healthy diet”.

Mario Lubetkin added that, “although the food price index fell in the last 7 months, its level is still 14% higher compared to 2021. The strengthening of social protection systems in rural areas, particularly aimed at family farmers; and removing restrictions on international trade in food and fertilizers will be key measures in the response process to the current crisis.”

The more social protection, the less vulnerability

The report also highlights the need to reinforce the active role of social protection systems, including national school feeding programmes, to prevent the most vulnerable segments of the population, such as children and the elderly, from being irreversibly affected by the rise in food prices.

“In a regional scenario where multidimensional poverty is increasingly linked to food and nutrition insecurity and where different crises are adding to deep structural inequities, social protection systems, including school meals, play a fundamental role in mitigating the vulnerability of people before, during and after crises,” said Lola Castro, regional director of the WFP for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Finally, the study highlights the need to guarantee the access of small producers to fertilizers and biofertilizers, with the condition of focusing it “on the producers who need it most and it is conditioned to the improvement of the efficiency in the use of these inputs and of the sustainability of agricultural activity”.

The financing of these initiatives should not only be part of public budgets, but also include development banks, private banks and other international financing alternatives such as green and social bonds, adds the analysis.