3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet: FAO

NEW DELHI: The Food and Agriculture Organisation released a new 2021 State of Food and Agriculture Report. “Unpredictable shocks will continue to undermine these systems,” according to the report titled ‘Making agrifood systems more resilient to shocks and stresses.’

The report emphasised the importance of countries making their systems more resilient to sudden shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic which caused the most recent global hunger surge. The Agency highlighted the urgency to strengthen their capacity to endure shocks including extreme weather events and surges in plant and animal diseases and pets.

The report includes indicators at the country level for over a hundred member states. It is based on the examination of factors such as transportation networks, trade flows and the availability of nutritious and diverse diets. It established that while low-income countries generally face much greater challenges, middle –income countries now are also at risk. Furthermore, a disruption in critical transportation links threatens to raise food prices for 845 million people.

According to the UN food agency, approximately three billion people or nearly 40% of the world’s population cannot afford a healthy diet and another billion would join them if unpredictable events in future reduce incomes by one-third. Diversification of actors, input sources, production, markets and supply chains was recommended in the report to create multiple pathways for absorbing shocks and improving the food system. It has also been proposed that well-connected networks can help to overcome disruptions faster by shifting sources of supply and channels for transportation, marketing, inputs and labour. By improving access to assets, diversified income sources and social protection programmes, government can improve resilience of vulnerable households which is very crucial to ensure a world free from hunger.