World hunger becomes food for thought as World Food Day is marked

He added that many of these people worked in the informal sector, such as the self-employed or worked for someone who is self-employed, therefore they fell outside outside the reach of social protection schemes, including pensions. That’s a long way from zero.

FAO assistant director general Jomo Kwame Sundaram observed: “Most of the world’s poor and hungry continue to live in rural areas”. The document aims to boost awareness of the United Nations sustainable development goals and to prove part of the expo’s legacy in a world where almost 800 million people go hungry. Food production was in pace with the population increase up to now.

Sundaran cited the example of social protection in Zambia. Such investments can break the self-perpetuating cycle of rural poverty.

In a report, the FAO said that social protection programs well integrated with those related to agriculture are the most effective.

Social protection refers to programmes to provide basic needs. “Social protection is intended for the poorest of the poor”, he explained.

“However, a large proportion of Cambodian population still lives just above the poverty line and remains highly vulnerable to shocks, such as climate change, natural disasters, protracted illness and rising food prices”, he said.

“It is important to recognise that most people in developing countries are not now covered by social protection”.

That and the evidence from elsewhere indicate that social protection and agricultural development can be powerful allies in the battle to alleviate poverty and hunger.

Social protection transfers, he said, can provide incomes and food to improve the nutrition of the poor and undernourished.

According to FAO, more than 90% of the 570 million farms worldwide are managed by an individual or family.

Time is money, and that is no less true for the poor.

Today, we know that even relatively small cash transfers to poor households, when regular and predictable, can serve as insurance against those risks that tend to deter them from pursuing higher-return activities or lead them to adopt negative risk coping strategies.

The report stressed that the notion that social protection reduces people’s work effort is a myth. Rather, recipients often respond to social protection positively.

“Social protection not only protects the poor, it prevents a few of the worst forms of human deprivation”, Dr Sundaram continued. We need to integrate them with pro-poor agricultural investment programmes to derive more virtuous synergies.

Political commitment, adequate funding, partnerships, and complementary actions in health and education will be key elements in transforming this vision into reality.

Social protection is one of the major areas where significant improvements in food and nutritional security can be made without violating WTO rules, Dr. Ekatarina Krivonos of the FAO Trade and Market Division told Bridges. We have the tools. To achieve this goal, the Government has planned to launch a Zero Hunger and Family Farming Programmes.

The global Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) held their 14th annual meeting at FAO headquarters on Oct.12-13 to further strengthen their collaboration on critical issues to ensure safe, nutritious and sustainable feed and food.