Extreme hunger is happening all over the world at levels that have never been seen before, and the world is in the middle of the worst food crisis ever.
• Hunger is a real feeling that comes from the body. It means that there is a need for food and a lack of food. Chronic hunger happens when food security, or the ability to get good food when you need it, is threatened.
Insecure food supply: This means that a person can’t always get enough healthy food to stay healthy and stay active.
Malnutrition: This means that a person isn’t getting enough healthy food, too much healthy food, or the right kind of food. Malnutrition can be put into two main groups:
o The first is undernutrition, which includes being short for your age, thin for your height, underweight for your age, and not getting enough of some vitamins. o The other is noncommunicable diseases like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer that are linked to food.
The World Food Security and Nutrition Situation in 2022 Report: The Situation of Hunger Right Now
In 2021, there could be as many as 828 million hungry people around the world. o In 2023, 31.9% of women and 27.6% of men around the world were either moderately or seriously food insecure.
India: By 2020, 973.3 million Indians will not be able to afford to eat well. 36,1 million children under the age of five will be short in 2020. Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe put out the Global Hunger Report 2022, which puts India at number 107 out of 121 countries. o Between 2019 and 2021, there will be 224.3 million people who don’t get enough food. Poverty and injustice are the main causes of hunger and all kinds of malnutrition all over the world, including in Asia. o But since 2020, a number of things have happened that have led to a food disaster unlike any since World War II. Among these kinds of things:
COVID-19 Pandemic: They couldn’t work because of the pandemic and the lockdowns that were put in place to stop it from spreading.
Soaring inflation: This affects everyone on the world, but it has caused the most trouble for city families, making it impossible for them to buy a healthy amount of food.
The war in Ukraine: The fighting has made it hard for some poor countries to get enough food, fuel, and compost.
Extreme weather events: Climate shocks hurt food, jobs, and people’s lives, making it harder for people to feed themselves. 70% of the hungry people in the world live in places where there is war and crime.
Fertiliser prices are going up all over the world. The war in Ukraine has disrupted the production and sale of fertilisers around the world, which has caused natural gas prices to go up. High fertiliser costs could make the current food crisis about how to pay for it into a crisis about how to get food.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2: It wants to get rid of hunger and poor diet everywhere by 2030.
Initiative for Black Sea Grain: o Because of the geopolitical war, the price of food is going up, so the agreement sets up a safe route through the Black Sea for the export of Ukrainian grains.
International Year of Millets (IYM 2023): The International Year of Millets (IYM 2023) was made by the United Nations General Assembly to support millets as a source of food security. Millets can also survive drought and other harsh weather conditions, which makes sure there is enough food for everyone.
Multilateral institutions
The World Food Organisation gives food aid to more than 80 million people in 80 countries. It is the biggest charity organisation in the world.
The World Bank invests in agriculture and rural development to improve food output and nutrition.
Food and Agriculture Organisation: It makes sure that people have access to enough healthy, high-quality food on a daily basis to live a healthy, active life.
India’s attempts to make sure it has enough food
The National Food Security Act of 2013 (NFSA): It made sure that methods to food security that were based on welfare were replaced with ones that were based on rights. Under the law, 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population could get food grain subsidies through a targeted public distribution scheme.
PM-GKAY (Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana): The National Food Security Act says that 80 crore people can get 5 kg of grain for free every month through this programme. It is more than what the NFSA allows each month.
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS): This programme started in 1975 as a way to care for and help grow young children. The goal is to improve the health and nutrition of children ages 0 to 6 and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. India will stop sending wheat abroad in May 2022 in order to keep prices from going up at home. The country is worried about how the heatwave will affect production and how its stores will be affected by private hoarding.
Encourage diversity: Crops that can handle extreme weather and climate change must be grown more if we want to make sure there is enough food.
Don’t waste food. Each year, about 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted around the world, according to the FAO.
Improve the current infrastructure. Some farmers can’t sell their crops because the roads, storage facilities, and food processing tools aren’t up to par.
