The world is at serious risk of a food-access crisis, the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), has warned.
QU Dongyu explained that the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain interruptions, rising commodity prices, conflicts and humanitarian crises are threatening the functioning of the global agri-food system.
“We are at serious risk of facing a food access crisis now, and probably a food availability crisis for the next season.
“All this has put at risk our efforts to achieve the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).
“We must prevent the acceleration of acute food insecurity trends in the coming months and years,” he told the 2022 UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York.
The HLPF is the main UN platform to review the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs.
The FAO director-general told the international community that the following measures are needed to address the current situation:
- Food production at the country-level must be expanded;
- Cash and critical inputs are needed for cereal and vegetable production and to protect livestock with treatments, vaccinations, feed and water;
- Agri-food supply chains and value chains must be strengthened to support smallholder farmers and households;
- Livelihoods, agri-food systems and economies need to be protected against future shocks;
- Increased sustainable productivity, strengthened capacities to deliver services and commodities, and increased access to innovative financial tools and digital services are required to mitigate the impacts of conflict on food insecurity.
“We only have eight years before our agreed timeline to implement the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. We have no time to lose,” Qu stated.
He noted that the cumulative loss to the global economy due to the pandemic and conflict in 2020 and 2021 was $12 trillion.
“We must put policies in place that both increase productivity and protect natural resources.”
Along with the need for timely distribution of food aid, the FAO has advocated for more emphasis to be placed on producing nutritious food locally.
Only 8% of all food security funding in emergencies goes to help agricultural production.
However, investing in agriculture and rural livelihoods is up to 10 times more cost-effective than traditional assistance.
Qu also spoke of the need to ensure better and more efficient use of available outputs and inputs, citing the examples of global water stress, food loss and waste, and using fertiliser more efficiently.
Around one billion hectares of land face severe water constraints and almost 800 million hectares of land for crops and pasture are severely affected by recurring drought.
Current levels of food lost and wasted could feed around 1.26 billion people/year, the FAO director-general stated.
