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Number of hungry people in the world drops for the first time in 15 years: FAO by Amulya Nagaraj


The number of hungry people in the world dropped about 10 percent for the first time in 15 years to below 1 billion but the figure is still "unacceptable," the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report.

According to a report titled "The State of Food Insecurity in the World," which will be jointly published by FAO and World Food Program (WFP) in October, about 925 million people are undernourished in 2010, compared to 1.02 billion in 2009.

The drop was mainly in Asia, where 80 million fewer people were estimated to be going hungry this year. In the Sub-Saharan Africa, only about 12 million people (estimated to be one out of three people) would continue to be undernourished. This is mainly a result of renewed economic growth this year, combined with the drop in food prices since mimd-2008, the FAO said in a statement.

However, the recent spurt in food prices would create more obstacles in the further reduction of hunger if it persists, the organization added.

Food prices have soared in the past few months as the world faces a shortage of food grains due to droughts in Russia and floods in Pakistan. Russia is one of the world's largest wheat exporter, but the country banned all further exports as a drought and fires burnt out much of the country's stock this year.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said the next batch of exports would be only after the next harvest, possibly expected in mid-2011.

The food prices crisis led to riots in regions like Mozambique, leading to the death of at least six people earlier this month.

However, UN's Hafez Ghanem, Assistant Director-General for Economic and Social Development, said the current food prices did not have 'elements of a crisis.'

"The market fundamentals are sound and very different from 2007-2008. Despite the shortfall in Russia's wheat production, this year's cereal harvest was the third highest on record and stocks are high.  Under these conditions we don't believe that we are headed for a new food crisis, but we will continue monitoring the situation closely," he said in an interview published on the FAO website.

He also defended an 'emergency meeting' called by the UN earlier in September and said this was not an emergency meeting.

"The purpose of the meeting will be to present members with the latest supply and demand balance," he said, adding that members would be asked to describe the situation in their countries.

The meeting will take place on 24 September in Rome.

The FAO report stated that about two thirds of the world's undernourished live in just seven countries -- Bangladesh, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan. However, the sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the highest proportion of undernourished people at 30 percent in 2010.

China and Pakistan were severely hit by flooding this year. According to estimates from the United Nations, about 1.4 million acres of agricultural land has been destroyed so far in Pakistan. The Pakistan government said the floods would hit its 4.5 percent growth target for the year.

Flooding in China's Dandong district has been called the worst in over a decade. Over 200,000 people have been relocated after the country's Yalu river rose to its highest levels in over 10 years.

However, the FAO report states that China is close to achieving the first of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 1), while Armenia, Myanmar and Vietnam have already achieved it.

MDG goals, as it is popularly known, are aimed at eliminating extreme poverty and hunger. MDG 1 aims to halve the number of people whose income is less than $1 a day, reduce hunger and achieve productive employment for all, including women and young people, before 2015.