Context

• The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 report, released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), estimated that 820 million people worldwide did not have enough to eat in 2018, up from 811 million in the previous year.
• At the same time, the number of overweight individuals and obesity continue to increase in all regions

About

Highlights of the Report

• The 2019 edition of this report continues to signal that significant challenges remain in the fight against food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms.
• The number of obese adults in India has risen by a fourth in four years, from 24.1 million in 2012 to 32.8 million in 2016, while the country’s undernourished population has dropped by roughly the same fraction in 12 years, from 253.9 million in 2004-06 to 194.4 million in 2016-18.
• Hunger is on the rise in almost all African subregions, making Africa the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment.
• Hunger is also slowly rising in Latin America and the Caribbean, while Western Asia shows a continuous increase since 2010, with more than 12 % of its population is undernourished.
• The report has a section on economic growth in China and India, and its effect on poverty. Between 1990 and 2017, the two countries had an average GDP per capita growth rate of 8.6 % and 4.5 % respectively.
• In both countries, the increase in GDP per capita has been accompanied by poverty reduction. While China’s poverty rate declined from 88 % in 1981 to 0.7 %t in 2015, India’s poverty reduction appeared to be relatively more modest, moving from 48.9 % in 1987 to 21.2 % in 2011, or to 13.4 % in 2015.

State of Food Security and Nutrition Report

• This joint report is issued annually by the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.
• It presents the latest estimates on food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition at the global and regional levels.
• The report calls for action to safeguard food security and nutrition through economic and social policies that help counteract the effects of such slowdowns and downturns including guaranteeing funding of social safety nets and ensuring universal access to health and education.
• It calls for action, as well, to tackle inequalities at all levels through multi-sectoral policies making it possible to more sustainably avert food insecurity and malnutrition.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

• FAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
• Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate arguments and debate policy.
• FAO is also a source of knowledge and information, and helps developing countries in transition to modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices, ensuring good nutrition and food security for all.
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Agriculture
• Flagship Publication/s:
• The State of Food and Agriculture
• The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture
• State of the World’s Forests
• The State of Food Insecurity in the World
• The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets