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Food crises compromising fight against world hunger, warns UN report

11 October 2011

Food crises are jeopardising efforts to achieve the millennium development goal of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015, United Nations food experts have warned.

In an annual flagship report on world hunger compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP), the agencies said food price volatility is likely to continue and possibly increase, making poor farmers, consumers and countries more vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity.

This year’s report focuses on high and volatile food prices, identified as major contributing factors in food insecurity at global level and a source of grave concern to the international community.

“But even if the MDG were achieved by 2015 some 600 million people in developing countries would still be undernourished. Having 600 million people suffering from hunger on a daily basis is never acceptable,” warned Jacques Diouf of FAO, Kanayo F. Nwanze of IFAD and Josette Sheeran of WFP in a preface to the report.

The report stresses that investment in agriculture remains critical to sustainable, long-term food security. Key areas where such investments should be directed are cost-effective irrigation, improved land-management practices and better seeds developed through agricultural research.  That would help reduce the production risks facing farmers, especially smallholders, and mitigate price volatility.

Read the full release at the FAO website, and download “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2011″ report here.

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