With 210m, India home to a quarter of the world’s hungry

Record High Cereal Production & Global Hunger Puzzle Govts

Subodh Varma TIG 

    In a striking paradox, the number of hungry people in the world was estimated at 842 million in 2011-13 by the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report released on Monday even as world cereal production was estimated at a near record level of 2,489 million metric tonnes a few days ago. About a quarter of the world’s hungry, or 210 million, are in India alone. 
    The number of hungry people appears to have declined slightly from the 870 million estimated in 2010-12, but the current GHI report says this is due to a recalculation of how undernourishment is measured by the UN-linked Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Since 2006, the absolute number of undernourished people has remained unchanged but their proportion to total world population is declining because the latter is growing. 
    The 2013 GHI is calculated for 120 countries for which data on its three component indicators are available and where measuring hunger is considered most relevant. The three indicators used are: the proportion of undernourished people, the proportion of children under five who are underweight, and the mortality (death) rate of children younger than age five. The report has been brought out by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and two international charities Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide. 
    Where is India in all this? The 2013 GHI says that in India the proportion of the undernourished declined from about 21% of the population to 17.5%, the proportion of underweight children declined from 43.5% to about 40% and under-five mortality declined from 7.5% to about 6%. All this put together means that the hunger index for India declined from 24 to 21 between 2003-07 and 2008-12. 
    The proportion of underweight children is an estimate done by IFPRI as the last survey was done in 2004-05. 
    In other words, the proportions and the index for India are at best an approximation. Other surveys done more recently have shown trends that indicate that the nutritive value of food consumed per person is dipping. A recent survey of consumer expenditure said that nutritional intake measured in terms of calories declined from 2,153 kilocalories (Kcal) per person per day in 1993-94 to 2,020 in 2009-10 in rural areas and from 2,071 to 1,946 Kcal in urban areas. These shocking results are according to a report of the 66th round of survey done by the National Sample Survey Organisation. Even between 2004-05 and 2009-10, the calorie intake per person per day dipped from 2,047 to 2,020 in rural areas and from 2,020 to 1,946 in urban areas. 
    Despite these caveats regarding the GHI data, India still remnains in the “Alarming” category of countries classified by the severity of hunger. That puts it in the category where the hunger index is between 20 and 29.9. Others in this category are Ethiopia, Sudan, Congo, Chad, Niger, and other African countries. These are places ravaged by resource wars and extreme poverty, and they make up the bottom-most bunch in the human development index rankings. 
    Meanwhile, an October report on food prospects issued by the FAO forecast a record cereal harvest for 2013, powered by a 7% rise in production over 2012. Wheat output is estimated at 705 million tonnes (MT), a record. Coarse grains output is put at 1,288MT, another record. And rice output is estimated at 496MT, yet another record. Wheat prices have declined in international markets by 16% over the past year, rice prices are down 23% and those of maize by 35%, according to FAO’s price monitor in October. With good production and declining prices worldwide, why the world’s hungry are not getting enough food is a conundrum that policy makers and experts are struggling to answer.

Source:::: The Times of India, 15-10-2013, p.10,   http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/10/15&PageLabel=10&EntityId=Ar01000&ViewMode=HTML

15.7 million undernourished people live in developed countries: U.N.

About 842 million people, or roughly one in eight, suffered from chronic hunger in 2011-13, down from 868 million people reported for the 2010-12 period, according to the new State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2013 report released on Tuesday by United Nations food agencies.

Interestingly, the agencies observed that while a vast majority of hungry people lived in developing regions, 15.7 million lived in developed countries.

This does not surprise Supreme Court-appointed Food Commissioner and National Advisory Council (NAC) member N.C. Saxena who told The Hindu that although hunger has reduced in China and South-east Asia, there always has been some hunger even in the U.S. and some European countries. “It is not as if everything is hunky-dory in developed countries. I was reading a report that said that 16 per cent people in the U.S. are below poverty line.”

At the same time, he said that “the record of reducing hunger in India and South Asia is not so good. If you look at the cereal consumption of the poor in India, it has remained stagnant or even gone down because they tend to spend their incremental income on health, transport or even tobacco. It is not just high prices of food but lack of demand. It is very unfortunate.”

The report, published every year by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture Development and the World Food Programme, defined chronic hunger as “not getting enough food to lead active and healthy life.”

Continued economic growth in developing countries improved incomes and access to food. Higher farm productivity growth, supported by increased public investment and renewed interest of private investors in agriculture improved food availability.

In addition, in some countries, remittances from migrants were playing a role in poverty reduction, leading to better diets and food security, the report noted.

Calling for nutrition-sensitive interventions in agriculture and food systems as a whole as well as in public health and education, the report said policies aimed at enhancing farm productivity and food availability could achieve hunger reduction even where poverty was widespread.

Substantial reductions in both, the number of hungry and prevalence of undernourishment, have occurred in most countries of East Asia, Southeastern Asia and in Latin America. Sub-Saharan Africa has made only modest progress in recent years and has the highest prevalence of undernourishment with one in four people (24.8 per cent) estimated to be hungry.

The developing regions, the report says, have made a significant progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target of halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015. It says that if the average decline since 1990 continues till 2015, then the prevalence of undernourishment will reach a level close to the MDG hunger target.

The report underscored that “economic growth is the key for progress in hunger reduction,” but added that growth may not lead to more and better jobs and incomes for all, unless policies specifically target the poor, especially those in rural areas.

“In poor countries, hunger and poverty reduction will only be achieved with growth that is not only sustained but also broadly shared,” the report observed.

The findings and recommendations of the report will be discussed by representatives of governments, civil society and private sector next week at a meeting of the Committee of Food Security at the FAO headquarters in Rome.

Source:::: The Hindu, 02-10-2013, p.22,  http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/157-million-undernourished-people-live-in-developed-countries-un/article5190697.ece