World’s Hungry Pass 1 Billion as Wealth Increases: Chart of Day
The world’s undernourished and hungry will exceed 1 billion this year as governments failed to channel a decade of rising wealth into improving agriculture.
The CHART OF THE DAY coincides with World Food Day and shows how hunger began increasing in the mid-1990s following a 20-year decline. The green line shows that global per-capita gross domestic product rose almost 84 percent through the end of last year and is likely to be 76 percent higher at the end of 2009 even after the global recession, according to World Bank and United Nations data.
Government development aid for agriculture has fallen 37 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis since 1988, contributing to the rise in hunger even as population growth eased, the Food and Agriculture Organization said in the 2009 edition of the State of Food Insecurity in the World released Oct. 14.
“Investment in more long-term agriculture is needed,” said David Dawe, a senior economist at the Rome-based FAO. “It’s going to take a long-term sustainable commitment and it’s going to require that those funds be spent effectively.”
World hunger declined in the late 1970s and through the 1980s after a global food crisis triggered a surge in government agricultural aid and investment that boosted crop yields and improved transport and irrigation, the FAO report said.