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| The Zero Hunger Challenge | | |
Dr. Banarsi Lal and Dr. Pawan Sharma
Hunger is a global challenge. There are around 800 million people in the world who do not have enough food to live a healthy life. The highest numbers of hungry people are in Asia while the highest prevalence of hunger is in Sub-Saharan Africa. Poor nutrition causes around half of deaths of children under five years old. About 100 million children in the world are underweight. Malnutrition is an outcome of poverty and inequality. It has been observed that in 2017 around 1.5 billion people suffered from micro-nutrients deficiencies.2.6 billion people were overweight (30 per cent of global population). Hunger is mainly circumscribed to the specific areas, namely those ravaged by conflicts, droughts and extreme poverty. Obesity is found everywhere and it is increasing alarmingly around the world.
The growing rate of obesity is happening at a huge socio-economic cost. Obesity is a risk factor for many non-communicable diseases such as heart attack, diabetes, stroke, cancer etc. This year, World Food Day aims to remind us to commit to eradicate all forms of malnutrition and achieve the target of zero hunger. It is estimated that world population will reach to 9 billion by 2050.In a world of 805 million people, one in nine persons lives in chronic hunger. Every year around five millions children under the age of five die due to malnutrition. Out of ten, four children are malnourished in the poor countries of the world. It is estimated that world produces enough food to feed every person on the earth. No one in the world should have the experience of hunger. The theme of World Food Day in 2014 was “Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for earth”; in 2015 the theme was “Social Protection and Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty”; in 2016 the theme was “Climate Change: Climate is Changing, Food and Agriculture must too”, in 2017 the theme was “Change the future of migration. Invest in food security and rural development” and in 2018 theme is “Our actions are our future. A zero hunger world by 2030 is possible”. Most of the themes for this day revolve around agriculture because investment in agriculture supported by education and health can turn around this problem. With the climate change food crisis is a challenge for the entire world. There are more than one billion people in the world who are undernourished. Zero hunger can save the lives of 3.1 million children a year. Well-nourished mothers have healthier babies with a stronger immune system. Proper nutrition in early life could mean 46 per cent more in lifetime earnings. Zero hunger can help to build a safe, prosperous and healthy world. There is need to find new and scientific ways by the farmers to produce quality food and diversify their crops.
Food is a common element for all the human beings on the earth. In India during the marriage ceremonies lot of food is prepared out of which many times lot of food is wasted. Such food can be preserved and distributed among the poor and needy people. A scheme can be launched in which certain percentage of the salaries can be deducted from the employees of various organisations who voluntarily want to donate for food bank and such money can be utilized to feed the poor people. On this day various aspects of agriculture and food security such as biodiversity, climate change etc. are discussed. People are guided to save the food and eliminate food wastage. There is a need to concentrate on zero hunger. With the elimination of under nutrition in the children GDP up to 16.5 per cent can be increased. Iron deficiency in the population can boost 20 percent of the workplace productivity. India’s food grain production has been on the rise despite year-to-year fluctuations since the Green Revolution of the 1960s. After the Green Revolution, increase in production is due to introduction of yield-increasing technologies, supportive services and infrastructure. The country’s total food grain production was 50 million tons in 1950-51 which was 284 million tons in 2017-18. Food-sufficiency does not reflect food security for the entire population of the country though it makes the country food secure at the micro-level. Food security needs to manifest in all its dimensions, covering all regions and all economic strata of society. The per capita availability has also been risen during the same period from around 395 grams per day to nearly 463 grams per day despite unabated increase in population. It has been observed that one third (34.3%) children in India are stunted, two children out of five are underweight, three fourth of them are anemic and one out of every three undernourished children in the world is from India. There is dire need to mitigate the problem of malnutrition in India. The country appears to be not only self-sufficient in food grains but also having marginally surplus as well. But the issue whether the present level of nutritional intake is adequate or not is still being debated. India has been regularly exporting rice and wheat since December 2000 and the government started offering grains for exports to prune the excessive stock-holding. India has since become the world’s second largest exporter of rice and seventh that of wheat. The subsequent drought and increased domestic grain utilization in its wake slowed down the exports but even then the export surplus has continued to persist. India accounts for 33% of the total poor people in the world. Time and again India evolved strategies to tackle rural as well as urban poverty. The real issue is not the availability of food but of its affordability by the poor. There is need to adopt multisectoral approach by involving the Government and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), various national and local institutions, civil society organizations, private sectors and citizens. We all need to make collective efforts for a healthy diet. Zero hunger encompasses the eradication of all forms of nutrition. Our objective should not only to feed the people but also to nourish the people. Food system should be transformed in such a way so that all the people can consume safe, healthy and nutritious food. |
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