ROME, May 25 (IPS) – This is the initiative of Mario Lubetkin, Assistant Director-General of FAO If the war in Ukraine, which was started three months ago, does not end and does not reduce the number of wars. As conflicts grow in other parts of the world, hunger will only continue to increase.
As is rare in recent history, issues related to the world’s agro-food systems and food security are at the center of global and regional debates and action in search of viable solutions. compete to prevent world hunger from worsening as a result of wars and other conflicts.
It also seeks to accelerate efforts to transform agricultural systems, to ensure more inclusive and environmentally sound development and better nutrition.
“Peace is essential to protect people from hunger,” FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu has repeatedly spoken at major forums around the world.
Ukraine is clearly the country hardest hit by war because of the human suffering and destruction of value chains and food supplies.
However, the consequences of this conflict are also being felt by low-income and food-importing countries that depend on Russia and Ukraine for supplies of food, grains, fuel and fertilizers, in particular. is in Africa and Asia, as they face unprecedented food increases. price.
At the end of March, just over a month after the start of the war, on February 24, food products rose 12.6%, the highest increase since 1990, according to Agriculture Organization figures. United Nations wages (FAO).
At the end of April, prices decreased slightly; However, the outlook for the coming months is not encouraging.
According to a recent study by FAO, the World Food Program (WFP) and other organisations, around 193 million people in 53 countries are already severely food insecure and need very urgent assistance by the end of the year. in 2021, nearly 40 million more people than in 2020.
It is expected that the numbers will continue to increase in 2022 if wars and conflicts continue.
Afghanistan alone represents about 20 million people in this condition, half of its population, with very high numbers also in Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
War and conflict have pushed more than 139 million people in 24 countries into severe food insecurity; Extreme weather events have caused extreme hunger for another 23 million people in eight countries, while economic shocks have severely affected 30 million people in 21 countries.
These data demonstrate the increasingly close relationship between conflict, climate change, economic and financial crises, as well as energy and health issues, and the fight against hunger.
All this in a context that has been worsened by the effects of COVID-19 in recent years, which has exacerbated the situation of those who numbered more than 800 million at the beginning of the pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 has increased that number by 100 million, not to mention the problems of malnutrition that affect more than 3 billion people.
The war raised prices, especially for wheat, corn, and oilseeds, as well as fertilizer. These increases depend on increases that were already high during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wheat export forecasts for Russia and Ukraine have been revised downward, and while other competitors such as India and the European Union have raised their offers, options are still very limited and prices are expected. will remain high.
The countries most likely to be affected due to their reliance on wheat imports from European countries during the war included Egypt and Turkey, as well as several African countries such as Congo, Eritrea, Madagascar , Namibia, Somalia and Tanzania.
In addition, some countries that rely heavily on fertilizers imported from Russia are exporters of grains and high-value commodities such as Argentina, Bangladesh and Brazil.
To face this difficult reality for a group of nearly 60 countries, FAO is proposing at major international forums, such as the Group of Seven (G7) meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, this month, to establish Global Food Fund.
This fund will be established to help the most affected countries cope with rising food prices and thus contribute to the relief of 1.8 billion people.
To ensure a more transparent market, this specialized agency of the United Nations, together with the Group of 20 (G20) countries, is promoting the consolidation and expansion of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS).
It is an inter-agency platform designed to improve the transparency of food markets, founded in 2011 by the world’s most powerful countries following the 2007-2008 and 2010 global food price spikes. .
At the same time, the aim is to support rural Ukrainian families to take quick action to help them cultivate crops in time for the harvest to begin in the coming months, which represents an essential source of income for 12 million rural residents of the country, almost a third of its population.
This, for example, involves distributing potato farming inputs to thousands of Ukrainian producers in at least 10 provinces and making targeted economic transfers.
Addressing these dramatically increasing emergencies, investing in healthier, more nutritious and equitable agricultural systems, applying more science and innovation to these processes, and reducing food loss could solve the food predicament of hundreds of millions of people.
“Time is short and the situation is very serious,” Qu warned at the United Nations Security Council on May 19.
© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
