In spite of the advances made in agriculture, many people around the world still go hungry.
Why is this the case ? What can be done about this problem?
Food is the basic necessity of life and without it survival of all living beings is impossible. Although many advancements have been made in agriculture, a number of people all over the world still starve with hunger. The reasons behind this problem will be discussed in the upcoming paragraphs along with some effective solutions for the same.
To begin with, around the globe, more than enough food is produced to feed the global population but around 690 million people still go to sleep empty stomach. After firmly declining for about a decade, world starvation is again on the rise, impacting 8.9 percent of people worldwide. First of all, production of food is not being able to keep pace with the sprawling population. Although advances have been made to increase agricultural output, climatic changes such as non-seasonal unprecedented heavy rainfall or droughts as well as natural disasters tend to devastate tonnes of crops leading to a deficit of stock. People nowadays eat a variety of exotic food items which is due to the impact of globalisation due to which demand for grains and cereals to make those dishes have increased. As a result, privileged people are getting the most of it whereas the poor are struggling to arrange two meals a day. Inflation has caused an incline in prices of fertilizers and other food production costs making food expensive that can’t be afforded by a common man. Economic recession and over population has increased the proportion of people who are jobless and below poverty which has worsened the problem of world hunger.
As every lock has a key, this situation is also conquerable by taking some effective steps. Firstly, practices like climate smart agriculture allow farmers to adapt and become more resilient to a less-predictable climate. These practices include diversifying crop varieties and conservation agriculture practices. Secondly, forced migration due to several reasons is a key cause of hunger. Refugees are some of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to hunger thus they can learn how to make staples like cheese and yogurt and sell it in the market to earn profit. Thirdly, dealing with food waste can be a radical shift and anyone can be a part of it by simply reducing one’s own food waste. Moreover, investment should be made to improve the disaster risk reduction so that people can protect their crops or harvest from natural or manmade disasters. Also, crops aren’t only threatened by drought and flood but they may also be decimated by pest or fungus invasions. Thus, they should be protected by taking various steps such as aerial sprays. Lastly, food storage also has to be improved by applying methods like sun drying as well as methods like biofortification of grains by enriching them with essential nutrients or use of hybrid seeds to increase farm output can also work wonders.
To sum up, world hunger is indeed a serious jeopardy affecting millions of people worldwide, however, some prudent measures and awareness can help turn the tables and mitigate this problem to a great extent.
