In Brief: World hunger increases despite growth in food production

In food production

In Brief: World hunger increases despite growth in food production

DUSHANBE, 12 November 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows,
hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop
Prospects and Food Situation report for November
[http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/ak340e/ak340e00.htm], published by the Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.

The report highlights a contradiction: world cereal production is at its
second-highest level ever, yet food prices remain very high. It identifies
77 countries that are both low-income and food deficit.

In East Africa, cereal prices range from 68 percent to 177 percent over the
2007 numbers. In southern Africa, prices are 58-200 percent higher than in
2007, and in most of Asia prices are up 40-70 percent. Since most low-income
food deficit countries are food importers, they lose far more from high
prices than they gain from steady crop production.

Hunger, in most cases, is caused by lack of money rather than a shortage of
food production, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
[http://www.wfp.org/hunger/causes] In 2008 the number of undernourished
people in the world increased by 40 million, despite record harvests.
[http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/8836/icode/]

The new FAO report suggests that 2009 is likely to see a similar increase in
hunger.

ash/at/cb

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