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THE STATE OF FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN THE WORLD | SOFI

Todos os anos, este é o relatório da FAO mais intensamente examinado. O SOFI apresenta o número de pessoas subnutridas em todo o mundo, ao mesmo tempo que defende estratégias contra a fome e a subnutrição. Após a publicação do relatório global, uma grande quantidade de estatísticas é desagregada em relatórios regionais. O SOFI é divulgados desde de 1999 em parceria da Organização das Nações Unidas para Alimentação e Agricultura (FAO), Fundo das Nações Unidas para a Infância (UNICEF), Programa Mundial de Alimentos (PMA | WFP), Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS | WHO) e Fundo Internacional de Desenvolvimento Agrícola (FIDA)

THE STATE OF FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN THE WORLD | SOFI PÓS-2017

SOFI 2023 | Urbanization, Agrifood Systems, Transformation and Healthy Diets across the Rural-Urban continuum

This report brings our organizations together again to reaffirm that, if we do not redouble and better target our efforts, our goal of ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 will remain out of reach. Although the world is recovering from the global pandemic, this recovery is occurring unevenly across and within countries. On top of this, the world is grappling with the consequences of the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has shaken food and energy markets.

Agrifood systems remain highly vulnerable to shocks and disruptions arising from conflict, climate variability and extremes, and economic contraction. These factors, combined with growing inequities, continue to challenge the capacity of agrifood systems to deliver nutritious, safe, and affordable diets for all. These major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition are our “new normal.” We have no option but to redouble our efforts to transform agrifood systems and leverage them towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) targets.

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2023
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2023

Global hunger is still far above pre-pandemic levels. It is estimated that between 690 and 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022. This is 122 million more people than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the increase in global hunger observed in the last two years has stalled, and in 2022, there were about 3.8 million fewer people suffering from hunger than in 2021. The economic recovery from the pandemic has contributed to this, but there is no doubt that the modest progress has been undermined by rising food and energy prices magnified by the war in Ukraine. There is no room for complacency, though, as hunger is still on the rise throughout Africa, Western Asia, and the Caribbean.

No doubt, achieving the SDG target of Zero Hunger by 2030 poses a daunting challenge. Indeed, it is projected that almost 600 million people will still be facing hunger in 2030. This is 119 million more people than in a scenario in which neither the COVID-19 pandemic nor the
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war in Ukraine had occurred, and around 23 million more people than in a scenario where the war had not happened.

Unfortunately, our worries are not only due to hunger. In 2022, 2.4 billion people, comprising relatively more women and people living in rural areas, did not have access to nutritious, safe, and sufficient food all year round. The persisting impact of the pandemic on people’s disposable income, the rising cost of a healthy diet, and the overall rise in inflation also continued to leave billions without access to an affordable healthy diet. Millions of children under five years of age continue to suffer from stunting (148 million), wasting (45 million), and overweight (37 million). Despite progress in reducing child undernutrition – both stunting and wasting – the world is not on track to achieve the associated 2030 targets, and neither is any region on track to attain the 2030 target for low birthweight, which is closely linked to the nutrition of women before and during pregnancy. Steady progress is only seen in levels of exclusive breastfeeding.

These numbers and trends may be a considerable disappointment for us, but for the children and people affected, they constitute an underlying fact of their lives, and this fuels our determination to keep finding solutions. Since 2017, when signs of increasing hunger first began to appear, our organizations, through this report, have provided in-depth analysis of the major drivers behind these concerning trends and evidence-based policy recommendations to address them.

We have repeatedly highlighted that the intensification and interaction of conflict, climate extremes, and economic slowdowns and downturns, combined with highly unaffordable nutritious foods and growing inequalities, are pushing us off track to meet the SDG 2 targets. While we must remain steadfast in taking bold, targeted actions to build resilience against these adversities, other important megatrends must be considered. Urbanization, for example, is one such megatrend that features as the theme of this year’s report. By 2050, almost seven in ten people are projected to live in cities; but even today, this proportion is approximately 56 percent. Urbanization is shaping agrifood systems in ways we can only understand through a rural–urban continuum lens, encompassing everything from food production, food processing, and food distribution, marketing and procurement, to consumer behavior. Due to population growth, small and intermediate cities and rural towns are increasingly bridging the space between rural areas and large metropolises. Hence, in our efforts to end hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in an urbanizing world, we can no longer operate on the traditional assumption of a rural–urban divide.

As the world urbanizes, food demand and supply are changing rapidly across the rural–urban continuum, challenging our traditional thinking. In some contexts, food purchases are no longer high only among urban households but also among rural households living far from an urban center. Moreover, the consumption of highly processed foods is also increasing in peri-urban and rural areas of some countries, whereas consumption of vegetables, fruits, and fats and oils is becoming more uniform across the rural–urban continuum. These important changes are affecting people’s food security and nutrition in ways that differ depending on where they live across this continuum.

To overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities that urbanization creates, our actions, policy interventions, and investments will have to be informed by a clear understanding of how the rural–urban continuum and agrifood systems interact, and how, given such interaction, urbanization affects access to affordable healthy diets, and consequently food security and nutrition. The policy approach must go beyond rural or urban silos and administrative borders and will require strong and well-coordinated governance mechanisms and institutions.

The theme of this year’s report is also timely and relevant for several other reasons. The policy recommendations can inform countries on what programs, investments, and actions can be effective and innovative for meeting the SDG 2 targets in the context of urbanization. They are also relevant for the achievement of other SDGs, including not only SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), but also SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).

Recent discussions at the United Nations General Assembly have raised the importance of achieving Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), as this is closely related to other important interconnected issues, including poverty eradication, climate action, migration, land degradation, economic prosperity, and the creation of peaceful societies. Nonetheless, the related links between urbanization and the affordability of healthy diets, and the resulting implications for food security and nutrition, have not been explored in these discussions, and we hope this report helps bridge this important gap. The report’s theme is also aligned with the New Urban Agenda, endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2016, and represents a unique contribution to creating awareness about the importance of improving access to affordable healthy diets as a critical component in pursuing sustainable urbanization.

Finally, we hope that this report informs other ongoing efforts, clearly those of the coalitions of action established after the United Nations Food Systems Summit as we move towards the global stocktaking meeting to review progress in implementing the outcomes of the Summit on 24–26 July 2023, not least the Urban Food Systems Coalition, the Coalition of Action on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems for Children and All, the School Meals Coalition, and the Zero Hunger Coalition; as well as the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement.

Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General
Alvaro Lario, IFAD President
Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director
Cindy Hensley McCain, WFP Executive Director
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2023
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2023

SOFI 2022 | Repourposing Food and Agricultural Policies to make Healthy Diets more affordable

The challenges to ending hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition continue to grow. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the fragilities in our agrifood systems and the inequalities in our societies, driving further increases in world hunger and severe food insecurity. Despite global progress, trends in child undernutrition – including stunting and wasting, deficiencies in essential micronutrients, and overweight and obesity in children – remain of great concern. Additionally, maternal anemia and obesity among adults continue to be alarming.

The most recent evidence available suggests that the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet around the world rose by 112 million to almost 3.1 billion, reflecting the impacts of rising consumer food prices during the pandemic. This number could be even greater once data are available to account for income losses in 2020. The ongoing war in Ukraine is disrupting supply chains and further affecting prices of grain, fertilizer, and energy. In the first half of 2022, this resulted in further food price increases. At the same time, more frequent and severe extreme climate events are disrupting supply chains, especially in low-income countries.

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2022
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2022

Looking forward, the gains made in reducing the prevalence of child stunting by one-third in the previous two decades – translating into 55 million fewer children with stunting – are under threat from the triple crises of climate, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Without intensified efforts, the number of children with wasting will only increase.

This report repeatedly highlights the intensification of these major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition: conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks, combined with growing inequalities. The issue at stake is not whether adversities will continue to occur but how we must take bolder action to build resilience against future shocks. While last year’s report highlighted the pathways to transform agrifood systems, the reality is that this is easier said than done. Global economic growth prospects for 2022 have been revised downward significantly; hence,
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more limited financial resources are available to invest in agrifood systems.

Public-private partnerships will be extremely important for investments in agrifood systems. Robust governance will also be important to ensure that such partnerships ultimately benefit communities and people in greatest need, not powerful industry players.

This report shows that governments can invest in agrifood systems equitably and sustainably, even with the same level of public resources. Governments’ support for food and agriculture accounts for almost USD 630 billion per year globally. However, a significant proportion of this support distorts market prices, is environmentally destructive, and hurts small-scale producers and Indigenous Peoples, while failing to deliver healthy diets to children and others who need them the most.

Food-importing countries have often provided stronger policy support, especially for cereals, with the aim of shielding their farming sector from international competition. In doing so, they may have disproportionately fostered the production of cereals relative to the production of pulses, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious foods. These policies have contributed to food security in terms of sufficient quantity of calories, but they are not effective in improving nutrition and health outcomes, including among children.

The evidence suggests that if governments repurpose the resources to prioritize food consumers, and incentivize sustainable production, supply, and consumption of nutritious foods, they will help make healthy diets less costly and more affordable for all. Governments must take this important transformational step, but the multilateral architecture under the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition must support it. Additionally, the repurposing of trade measures and fiscal subsidies will have to consider countries’ commitments and flexibilities under the rules of the World Trade Organization.

This evidence-based report builds on the momentum of last year’s United Nations Food Systems Summit and the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit, as well as the expected outcomes from the COP26 negotiations for building climate resilience for food security and nutrition. We recognize that countries with lower incomes will have scarce public resources and need international development finance support. These are countries where agriculture is key to the economy, jobs, and rural livelihoods, and where millions of people are hungry, food insecure, or malnourished. We are committed to working with these countries to find avenues for increasing the provision of public services that support agrifood systems’ actors collectively, with the involvement of local institutions and civil society, while forging public-private partnerships.

In all contexts, reforms to repurpose support to food and agriculture must also be accompanied by policies that promote shifts in consumer behaviors along with social protection policies to mitigate unintended consequences of reforms for vulnerable populations. Finally, these reforms must be multisectoral, encompassing health, environment, transport, and energy policies.

Our organizations stand firmly committed and ready to support governments and bring additional allies to achieve such policy coherence at the global and national levels. Everyone has a right to access safe nutritious foods and affordable healthy diets. Investing in healthy and sustainable agrifood systems is an investment in the future and in future generations.

Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General
Gilbert F. Houngbo, IFAD President
Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director
David Beasley, WFP Executive Director
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2022
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2022

SOFI 2021 | Transforming Food Systems for Food Security, improved Nutrition and affordable Healthy Diets for all

The world is at a critical juncture: it is very different from where it was six years ago when it committed to the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. At the time, while we understood that the challenges were significant, we were also optimistic that with the right transformative approaches, past progress could be accelerated at scale to put us on track to achieve that goal. Nonetheless, the past four editions of this report revealed a humbling reality. The world has not been generally progressing towards either Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 2.1, ensuring access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food for all people all year round, or SDG Target 2.2, eradicating all forms of malnutrition.

Last year’s report stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic was having a devastating impact on the world’s economy, triggering an unprecedented recession not seen since the Second World War, and that the food security and nutrition status of millions of people, including children, would deteriorate if we did not take swift action. Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to expose weaknesses in our food systems, which threaten the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, particularly the most vulnerable and those living in fragile contexts.

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2021 (Inglês)
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2021 (Espanhol)

This year, this report estimates that between 720 and 811 million people in the world faced hunger in 2020 – as many as 161 million more than in 2019. Nearly 2.37 billion people did not have access to adequate food in 2020 – an increase of 320 million people in just one year. No region of the world has been spared. The high cost of healthy diets and persistently high levels of poverty and income inequality continue to keep healthy diets out of reach for around 3 billion people in every region of the world. Moreover, new analysis in this report shows that the increase in the unaffordability of healthy diets is associated with higher levels of moderate or severe food insecurity.

While it is not yet possible to fully quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we are concerned by the many millions of children under 5 years of age who were affected by stunting (149.2 million), wasting (45.4 million), or overweight (38.9 million).
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Child malnutrition continues to be a challenge, particularly in Africa and Asia. Adult obesity also continues to increase, with no reversal in the trend in sight at global or regional levels. Efforts to eradicate malnutrition in all its forms have been challenged by disruptions in essential nutrition interventions and negative impacts on dietary patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the health front, the interaction between the pandemic, obesity, and diet-related non-communicable diseases has underlined the urgency of ensuring access to affordable healthy diets for all. Such myriad setbacks hide some important achievements – such as the increasing prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding of infants under 6 months.

The situation could have been worse without governments’ responses and the impressive social protection measures they have put in place during the COVID-19 crisis. However, not only have measures to contain the spread of the pandemic resulted in an unprecedented economic recession, but other important drivers are behind recent setbacks in food security and nutrition. These include conflict and violence in many parts of the world as well as climate-related disasters. Given the past and present interactions of these drivers with economic slowdowns and downturns, as well as high and persistent (and in some countries growing) levels of inequality, it is not surprising that governments could not prevent the worst-case scenario for food security and nutrition from materializing and affecting millions of people all over the world.

Hence, the world is at a critical juncture, not only because we have to overcome more significant challenges to ending hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition, but also because, with the fragility of our food systems widely exposed, we have an opportunity to build forward better and get on track towards achieving SDG 2. The UN Food Systems Summit, to be held later this year, will bring forward a series of concrete actions that people, food system actors, and governments from all over the world can take to support a transformation of the world’s food systems. We must build on the momentum that the run-up to the Summit has already generated and continue to build the evidence base on interventions and engagement models that best support the transformation of food systems. This report aims to contribute to this global effort.

We are aware that transforming food systems so that they provide nutritious and affordable food for all and become more efficient, resilient, inclusive, and sustainable has several entry points and can contribute to progress across the SDGs. Future food systems need to provide decent livelihoods for the people who work within them, particularly small-scale producers in developing countries – the people who harvest, process, package, transport, and market our food. Future food systems also need to be inclusive and encourage the full participation of Indigenous Peoples, women, and youth, both individually and through their organizations. Future generations will only thrive as productive actors and leading forces in food systems if decisive action is taken to ensure that children are no longer deprived of their right to nutrition.

While this broader food systems transformation is currently at the center of global attention, this report identifies the transformation pathways needed to specifically address the key drivers behind the recent rise in hunger and slowing progress towards reducing all forms of malnutrition. The report recognizes that these transformation pathways are only feasible if they help meet certain conditions, including creating opportunities for traditionally marginalized people, nurturing human health, and protecting the environment. Getting on track towards ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition will require a move away from silo solutions towards integrated food systems solutions, as well as policies and investments that address the global food security and nutrition challenges immediately.

This year offers a unique opportunity for advancing food security and nutrition through transforming food systems with the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit, the Nutrition for Growth Summit, and the COP26 on climate change. The outcomes of these events will certainly shape the actions of the second half of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition. We stand firmly committed to taking advantage of the unprecedented opportunity for these events to generate commitments towards transforming food systems to eradicate food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms, deliver affordable healthy diets for all, and build forward better from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General
Gilbert F. Houngbo, IFAD President
Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF Executive Director
David Beasley, WFP Executive Director
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

SOFI 2020 | Transforming Food Systems for affordable Healthy Diets

Five years after the world committed to ending hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition, we are still off track to achieve this objective by 2030. Data tell us that the world is progressing neither towards SDG target 2.1, of ensuring access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food for all people all year round, nor towards target 2.2, of eradicating all forms of malnutrition.

There are many threats to progress. The 2017 and 2018 editions of this report showed that conflict and climate variability and extremes undermine efforts to end hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. In 2019, the report showed that economic slowdowns and downturns also undercut these efforts. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as unprecedented Desert Locust outbreaks in Eastern Africa, are obscuring economic prospects in ways no one could have anticipated, and the situation may only get worse if we do not act urgently and take unprecedented action.

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2020
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2020

The most recent estimate for 2019 shows that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, almost 690 million people, or 8.9 percent of the global population, were undernourished. This estimate is based on new data on population, food supply, and more importantly, new household survey data that enabled the revision of the inequality of food consumption for 13 countries, including China. Revising the undernourishment estimate for China going back to the year 2000 resulted in a significantly lower number of undernourished people worldwide. This is because China has one-fifth of the global population. Despite this, the trend reported in past editions of this report still stands: since 2014, the number of hungry people worldwide has been slowly rising.

The new estimate for 2019 has revealed that an additional 60 million people have become affected by hunger since 2014. If this trend continues, the number of undernourished people will exceed 840 million by 2030. Hence, the world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger, even without the negative effects that COVID-19 will likely have on hunger.
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Preliminary projections based on the latest available global economic outlooks, also presented in this report, suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic may add an additional 83 to 132 million people to the ranks of the undernourished in 2020.

Beyond hunger, a growing number of people have had to reduce the quantity and quality of the food they consume. Two billion people, or 25.9 percent of the global population, experienced hunger or did not have regular access to nutritious and sufficient food in 2019. This situation could deteriorate if we do not act immediately and boldly.

These trends in food insecurity contribute to increasing the risk of child malnutrition, as food insecurity affects diet quality, including the quality of children’s and women’s diets, and people’s health in different ways. Hence, as painful as it is to accept, it is unsurprising that the burden of child malnutrition remains a threat around the world: in 2019, 21.3 percent (144.0 million) of children under 5 years of age were estimated to be stunted, 6.9 percent (47.0 million) wasted, and 5.6 percent (38.3 million) overweight, while at least 340 million children suffered from micronutrient deficiencies. The good news is that between 2000 and 2019, the global prevalence of child stunting declined by one-third. However, the world is not on track to achieve the global nutrition targets, including those on child stunting, wasting, and overweight by 2030. Furthermore, adult obesity is on the rise in all regions. Projections for 2030, even without considering a potential global recession, serve as an added warning that the current level of effort is not anywhere near enough to end malnutrition in the next decade.

We can still succeed, but only by ensuring all people’s access not only to food but to nutritious foods that make up a healthy diet. With this report, all five agencies are sending a strong message: a key reason why millions of people around the world suffer from hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition is because they cannot afford the cost of healthy diets. Costly and unaffordable healthy diets are associated with increasing food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, including stunting, wasting, overweight, and obesity. Food supply disruptions and the lack of income due to the loss of livelihoods and remittances as a result of COVID-19 mean that households across the globe are facing increased difficulties in accessing nutritious foods, making it even more difficult for poorer and vulnerable populations to have access to healthy diets.

It is unacceptable that in a world that produces enough food to feed its entire population, more than 1.5 billion people cannot afford a diet that meets the required levels of essential nutrients and over 3 billion people cannot even afford the cheapest healthy diet. People without access to healthy diets live in all regions of the world; thus, we are facing a global problem that affects us all.

Current food consumption patterns also generate what this year’s report calls “hidden costs” related to health costs (SDG 3) and climate-change costs (SDG 13). If current food consumption patterns continue, diet-related health costs linked to mortality and diet-related non-communicable diseases are projected to exceed USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2030. The diet-related social cost of greenhouse gas emissions associated with current dietary patterns is estimated to reach more than USD 1.7 trillion per year by 2030. Both of these hidden costs are a significant underestimation. The environmental costs do not account for other negative environmental impacts and the health costs do not account for the negative impacts of undernutrition due to data constraints. In light of this evidence, it is clear that the adoption of healthy diets that include sustainability considerations can significantly reduce these hidden costs, generating important synergies with other SDGs.

We must look throughout the food system to address the factors that are driving up the cost of nutritious foods. This means supporting food producers – especially small-scale producers – to get nutritious foods to markets at low cost, making sure people have access to these food markets, and making food supply chains work for vulnerable people – from small-scale producers to the billions of consumers whose income is simply insufficient to afford healthy diets.

Clearly, then, we face the challenge of transforming food systems to ensure that no one is constrained by the high prices of nutritious foods or the lack of income to afford a healthy diet, while we ensure that food production and consumption contribute to environmental sustainability. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for countries, and policymakers will need to assess the context-specific barriers, manage trade-offs, and maximize synergies – such as potential environmental gains – to achieve the required transformations.

We trust that the recommendations in this report, once tailored to each country context, will help governments to reduce the cost of nutritious foods, make healthy diets affordable for everyone, and enable vulnerable people working in food systems to earn decent incomes that enhance their own food security. This will set in motion a transformation of existing food systems that makes them resilient and sustainable. Areas of policy emphasis should include rebalancing agricultural policies and incentives towards more nutrition-sensitive investment; and policy actions all along food supply chains, with a focus on nutritious foods for healthy diets, to reduce food losses, create opportunities for vulnerable small-scale producers and others working in food systems, and enhance efficiencies. Nutrition-sensitive social protection policies will also be central to increasing the purchasing power and affordability of healthy diets for the most vulnerable populations. An enabling environment should also be promoted by policies that, more generally, improve the nutritional quality of the food produced and available on the market, support the marketing of diverse and nutritious food, and provide education and information for fostering individual and social behavior change towards healthy diets.

These policy recommendations are in line with key recommendations under the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition, 2016–2025. We believe that the analysis conducted and policy recommendations provided in this report will also help set the agenda for the first UN Food Systems Summit, which will take place in 2021 with the overarching goal of helping stakeholders better understand and manage complex choices that affect the future of food systems and their needed transformation to significantly accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.

Our agencies stand firmly committed to supporting a shift that makes healthy diets affordable to all and contributes to the eradication of hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition in children and adults. Our efforts shall ensure that this shift unfolds in a sustainable way, for people and the planet, and creates synergies to spur progress on other SDGs.

Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General
Gilbert F. Houngbo, IFAD President
Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF Executive Director
David Beasley, WFP Executive Director
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2020
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2020

SOFI 2019 | Safeguarding against economic slowdowns and downturns

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development puts forward a transformational vision, recognizing that our world is changing and bringing with it new challenges that must be overcome if we are to live in a world without hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in any of its forms.

The world population has grown steadily, with most people now living in urban areas. Technology has evolved at a dizzying pace, while the economy has become increasingly interconnected and globalized. Many countries, however, have not witnessed sustained growth as part of this new economy. The world economy as a whole is not growing as much as expected. Conflict and instability have increased and become more intractable, spurring greater population displacement. Climate change and increasing climate variability and extremes are affecting agricultural productivity, food production, and natural resources, impacting food systems and rural livelihoods, including a decline in the number of farmers. All of this has led to major shifts in the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed worldwide, leading to new food security, nutrition, and health challenges.

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2019
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2019

This is the third year that we have jointly produced The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. It reaffirms our commitment to working together to overcome these emerging challenges and free the world from hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition.

Recent editions of the report showed that the decline in hunger the world had enjoyed for over a decade was at an end, and that hunger was again on the rise. This year, the report shows that the global level of the prevalence of undernourishment has stabilized; however, the absolute number of undernourished people continues to increase, albeit slowly.

More than 820 million people in the world are still hungry today, underscoring the immense challenge of achieving the Zero Hunger target by 2030. Hunger is rising in almost all subregions of Africa and, to a lesser extent, in Latin America and Western Asia.
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We welcome the great progress seen in Southern Asia in the last five years, but the prevalence of undernourishment in this subregion is still the highest in Asia.

Another disturbing fact is that about 2 billion people in the world experience moderate or severe food insecurity. The lack of regular access to nutritious and sufficient food that these people experience puts them at greater risk of malnutrition and poor health. Although primarily concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, moderate or severe food insecurity also affects 8 percent of the population in Northern America and Europe. In every continent, the prevalence rate is slightly higher among women than men.

Regarding nutrition indicators, we are faring no better. If current trends continue, we will meet neither the 2030 SDG target to halve the number of stunted children nor the 2025 World Health Assembly target to reduce the prevalence of low birthweight by 30 percent. This year’s report warns that one in seven live births (20.5 million babies born globally) was characterized by low birthweight in 2015 – many of these low birthweight babies were born to adolescent mothers. The trends of overweight and obesity give us additional reason for concern, as they continue to rise in all regions, particularly among school-age children and adults. The most recent data show that obesity is contributing to 4 million deaths globally and is increasing the risk of morbidity for people in all age groups.

Our actions to tackle these troubling trends will have to be bolder, not only in scale but also in terms of multisectoral collaboration, involving the agriculture, food, health, water and sanitation, education, and other relevant sectors; and in different policy domains, including social protection, development planning, and economic policy.

As we seek solutions, we must keep in mind the fragile state of the world economy. Since the sharp 2008–2009 global economic downturn, there has been an uneven pace of recovery in many countries, and the global economic outlook is darkening again. This year, importantly, the report notes that hunger has been increasing in many countries where economic growth is lagging. Strikingly, the majority of these countries are not low-income countries, but middle-income countries and countries that rely heavily on international trade of primary commodities. Economic shocks are also prolonging and worsening the severity of acute food insecurity in food crisis contexts. Left unattended, these trends may have very unwelcome implications for malnutrition in all its forms. Moreover, we see that economic slowdowns and downturns disproportionately challenge food security and nutrition where inequalities in the distribution of income and other resources are profound.

We must recognize the importance of safeguarding food security and nutrition in times of economic difficulty. We must invest wisely during periods of economic booms to reduce economic vulnerability and build capacity to withstand and quickly recover when economic turmoil erupts. We must foster pro-poor and inclusive structural transformation, focusing on people and placing communities at the center to reduce economic vulnerabilities and set ourselves on track to ending hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition while “leaving no one behind.”

To make our transformational vision pro-poor and inclusive, we must integrate food security and nutrition concerns into poverty reduction efforts to make the most of the synergies between eradicating poverty, hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. We must also ensure that reducing gender inequalities and social exclusion of population groups is either the means to, or the outcome of, improved food security and nutrition.

This will require accelerated and aligned actions from all stakeholders and countries, including tireless and more integrated support from the United Nations and the international community to countries in support of their development priorities, through multilateral agreements and means of implementation, so that countries can embark on a pro-poor and inclusive path to transformation in a people-centered way to free the world from poverty, inequalities, hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all its forms.

José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General
Gilbert F. Houngbo, IFAD President
Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF Executive Director
David Beasley, WFP Executive Director
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2019
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2019

SOFI 2017 | Building resilience for Peace and Food Security

The transformational vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls on all countries and stakeholders to work together to end hunger and prevent all forms of malnutrition by 2030. This ambition can only be fulfilled if agriculture and food systems become sustainable so that food supplies are stable and all people have access to adequate nutrition and health. The start of the 2030 Agenda coincided with the launch of the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016–2025), adding impetus to these commitments by providing a time-bound, cohesive framework for action.

This year’s edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World marks the beginning of a new era in monitoring the progress made towards achieving a world without hunger and malnutrition within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, the report will henceforth monitor progress towards both the targets of ending hunger (SDG Target 2.1) and all forms of malnutrition (SDG Target 2.2). It will also include thematic analyses of how food security and nutrition are related to progress on other SDG targets. Given the broadened scope to include a focus on nutrition, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have joined the traditional partnership of FAO, IFAD, and WFP in preparing this annual report. We hope our expanded partnership will result in a more comprehensive and integral understanding of what it will take to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition and in more-integrated actions to achieve this critical goal.

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2017
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2017

The challenges we face are significant. As shown in Part 1 of the report, a key worrisome finding is that after a prolonged decline, the most recent estimates indicate that global hunger increased in 2016 and now affects 815 million people. Moreover, although still well below levels of a decade ago, the percentage of the global population estimated to be suffering from hunger also increased in 2016. In parts of the world, this recent surge in hunger reached an extreme level, with a famine declared in areas of South Sudan in early 2017 and alerts of a high risk of famine issued for three other contexts (northeast Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen). In 2016, the food security situation deteriorated sharply in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, South-Eastern Asia, and Western Asia.
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This was most notable in situations of conflict, particularly where the food security impacts of conflict were compounded by droughts or floods, linked in part to the El Niño phenomenon. However, worsening food security conditions have also been observed in more peaceful settings, especially where economic slowdowns have drained foreign exchange and fiscal revenues, affecting both food availability through reduced import capacity and food access through reduced fiscal space to protect poor households against rising domestic food prices.

The rising trend in undernourishment has not yet been reflected in rates of child stunting, which continue to fall. Nonetheless, the world is still home to 155 million stunted children. Levels of child stunting are still unacceptably high in some regions, and if current trends continue, the SDG target of reducing child stunting by 2030 will not be reached. Wasting also continues to threaten the lives of almost 52 million children (8 percent of children under five years of age), while childhood overweight and obesity rates are on the rise in most regions and in all regions for adults – all of which highlight the multiple burdens of malnutrition as a cause for serious concern.

The failure to reduce world hunger is closely associated with the increase in conflict and violence in several parts of the world. Part 2 of this year’s report attempts to provide a clearer understanding of the nexus between conflict and food security and nutrition and to demonstrate why efforts at fighting hunger must go hand-in-hand with those to sustain peace. Over the past decade, conflicts have risen dramatically in number and become more complex and intractable in nature. Some of the highest proportions of food-insecure and malnourished children are found in countries affected by conflict, a situation that is even more alarming in countries characterized by prolonged conflicts and fragile institutions. This has set off alarm bells we cannot afford to ignore: we will not end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 unless we address all the factors that undermine food security and nutrition. Securing peaceful and inclusive societies (SDG 16) is a necessary condition to that end.

We are more determined and committed than ever to step up concerted action to fulfill the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda and achieve a world free from hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition is an ambitious goal, but it is one we strongly believe can be reached if we strengthen our common efforts and work to tackle the underlying causes that leave so many people food-insecure, jeopardizing their lives, futures, and the futures of their societies. It is clear that conflict is a significant challenge to meeting this goal and will require multisector humanitarian, development, and peace strategies that address immediate needs while making the necessary investments to build resilience for lasting peace and food security and nutrition for all.

José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General
Gilbert F. Houngbo, IFAD President
Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director
David Beasley, WFP Executive Director
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2017
El Estado de la Seguridad Alimentaria y la Nutrición en el Mundo 2017

THE STATE OF FOOD INSECURITY IN THE WORLD | SOFI 1999 - 2015

SOFI 2015 | Meeting the 2015 international hunger targets: taking stock of uneven progress

This year’s annual State of Food Insecurity in the World report takes stock of the progress made towards achieving the internationally established hunger targets and reflects on what needs to be done as we transition to the new post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda.

United Nations member states have made two major commitments to tackle world hunger. The first was at the World Food Summit (WFS) in Rome in 1996, when 182 governments committed “…to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.” The second was the formulation of the First Millennium Development Goal (MDG 1), established in 2000 by the United Nations members, which includes among its targets “cutting by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.”

In this report, we review progress made since 1990 for every country and region, as well as for the world as a whole. First, the good news: overall, the commitment to halve the percentage of hungry people, that is, to reach the MDG 1c target, has been almost met at the global level. More importantly, 72 of the 129 countries monitored for progress have reached the MDG target, 29 of which have also reached the more ambitious WFS goal by at least halving the number of undernourished people in their populations.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2015
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2015

Marked differences in progress occur not only among individual countries but also across regions and subregions. The prevalence of hunger has been reduced rapidly in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Asia, as well as in Latin America; in Northern Africa, a low level has been maintained throughout the MDG and WFS monitoring periods. Other regions, including the Caribbean, Oceania, and Western Asia, saw some overall progress but at a slower pace. In two regions, Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, progress has been slow overall, despite many success stories at country and subregional levels. In many countries that have achieved modest progress, factors such as war, civil unrest, and the displacement of refugees have often frustrated efforts to reduce hunger, sometimes even increasing the number of hungry people.
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Progress towards the MDG 1c target, however, is assessed not only by measuring undernourishment, or hunger, but also by a second indicator – the prevalence of underweight children under five years of age. Progress for the two indicators was similar but slightly faster in the case of undernourishment. While both indicators have moved in parallel for the world as a whole, they diverge significantly at the regional level due to the different determinants of child underweight.

Overall progress notwithstanding, hunger remains an everyday challenge for almost 795 million people worldwide, including 780 million in the developing regions. Hence, hunger eradication should remain a key commitment of decision-makers at all levels.

In this year’s State of Food Insecurity in the World, we not only estimate the progress already achieved but also identify remaining problems and offer recommendations for how these can be addressed. In a nutshell, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. Interventions must be tailored to conditions, including food availability and access, as well as longer-term development prospects. Approaches need to be appropriate and comprehensive, with the requisite political commitment to secure success.

Much work remains to be done to eradicate hunger and achieve food security across all its dimensions. This report identifies key factors that have determined success to date in reaching the MDG 1c hunger target and provides guidance on which policies should be emphasized in the future.

Inclusive growth provides opportunities for those with meager assets and skills and improves the livelihoods and incomes of the poor, especially in agriculture. It is, therefore, among the most effective tools for fighting hunger and food insecurity and for attaining sustainable progress. Enhancing the productivity of resources held by smallholder family farmers, fisherfolk, and forest communities, and promoting their rural economic integration through well-functioning markets, are essential elements of inclusive growth.

Social protection contributes directly to the reduction of hunger and malnutrition. By increasing human capacities and promoting income security, it fosters local economic development and the ability of the poor to secure decent employment and thus partake in economic growth. There are many “win-win” situations to be found linking family farming and social protection. They include institutional purchases from local farmers to supply school meals and government programs, and cash transfers or cash-for-work programs that allow communities to buy locally produced food.

During protracted crises due to conflicts and natural disasters, food insecurity and malnutrition loom even larger. These challenges call for strong political commitment and effective actions.

More generally, progress in the fight against food insecurity requires coordinated and complementary responses from all stakeholders. As heads of the three Rome-based food and agriculture agencies, we have been and will continue to be at the forefront of these efforts, working together to support member states, their organizations, and other stakeholders to overcome hunger and malnutrition.

Major new commitments to hunger reduction have recently been made at the regional level – the Hunger-Free Latin America and the Caribbean Initiative, Africa’s Renewed Partnership to End Hunger by 2025, the Zero Hunger Initiative for West Africa, the Asia-Pacific Zero Hunger Challenge, and pilot initiatives of Bangladesh, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nepal, and Timor-Leste, among other countries. Further initiatives are in the making to eradicate hunger by the year 2025 or 2030.

These efforts deserve and have our unequivocal support to strengthen national capacities and capabilities to successfully develop and deliver the needed programs. Advances since 1990 show that making hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition history is possible. They also show that there is a lot of work ahead if we are to transform that vision into reality. Political commitment, partnership, adequate funding, and comprehensive actions are key elements of this effort, of which we are active partners.

As dynamic members of the United Nations system, we shall support national and other efforts to make hunger and malnutrition history through the Zero Hunger Challenge, the 2014 Rome Declaration on Nutrition, and the post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda.

José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General
Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD President
Ertharin Cousin, WFP Executive Director

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2015
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2015

SOFI 2014 | Strengthening the enabling environment for Food Security and Nutrition

When the 69th United Nations General Assembly begins its General Debate on 23 September 2014, 464 days will remain until the end of 2015, the target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

A stock-taking of where we stand on reducing hunger and malnutrition shows that progress in hunger reduction at the global level has continued, but food insecurity is still a challenge to be conquered.

The latest estimates show that, since 1990–92, the prevalence of undernourishment has fallen from 18.7 to 11.3 percent in 2012–14 for the world as a whole, and from 23.4 to 13.5 percent for the developing regions. The global MDG target 1c of reducing by half the proportion of undernourished people is within reach, if appropriate and immediate efforts are stepped up. Not only is MDG 1c within reach at the global level, but it has already been achieved by many countries. Sixty-three developing countries have already reached the target, 11 of which have maintained the prevalence of undernourishment below 5 percent since 1990–92, while another six are on track to do so by 2015. Twenty-five of the 63 countries have also accomplished the more ambitious 1996 World Food Summit (WFS) goal of halving the number of chronically underfed people.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2014
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2014

Since 1990–92, the number of hungry people has fallen by over 200 million. This is proof that we can win the war against hunger and should inspire countries to move forward, with the assistance of the international community as needed, by finding individual sets of action that respond to their national needs and specificities. This is the first step to achieving the other MDGs.

Despite this progress, however, the number of hungry people in the world is still unacceptably high: at least 805 million people, or one in nine, worldwide do not have enough to eat. Global trends in hunger reduction mask disparities within and among regions.
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While Northern Africa has had a consistently low prevalence of hunger at less than 5 percent, in sub-Saharan Africa, one in four people remain chronically hungry. Reversing this trend is our greatest challenge and requires transforming into concrete progress the growing political will in the region shown by the commitment made at the June 2014 African Union Summit to end hunger by 2025.

The sheer size of Asia makes it a region of extremes: 217 million Asians have overcome hunger since 1990–92; yet, it is still the region where two-thirds of the world’s hungry live. Significant reductions in global hunger numbers require even greater progress in the region. While the MDG hunger target has already been achieved in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, hunger prevalence in Southern Asia has declined, but insufficiently, since 1990–92.

Latin America and the Caribbean is the region that has shown the greatest progress in hunger reduction, with the prevalence of hunger reduced by almost two-thirds since the early 1990s. As a whole, it has already reached the MDG hunger target and is very close to meeting the WFS target. Government-led efforts combining support for production with social protection have been supported by much wider commitment: societies have decided to end hunger; parliaments are taking responsibility, and national efforts have been pushed forward by the strong commitment of the region as a whole that became the first region to commit to the goal of zero hunger by adopting the Hunger-Free Latin America and the Caribbean Initiative 2025 nearly ten years ago – a commitment reaffirmed by the region’s leaders at recent Summits of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

A most welcome message emerging from this year’s report is that accelerated, substantial, and sustainable hunger reduction is possible with the requisite political commitment. This has to be well-informed by sound understanding of national challenges, relevant policy options, broad participation, and lessons from other experiences. This year’s report includes seven case studies that summarize how and to what extent some countries have sought to create an “enabling environment for food security and nutrition.”

Food insecurity and malnutrition are complex problems that cannot be solved by one sector or stakeholder alone, but need to be tackled in a coordinated way, with the necessary political commitment and integrated leadership. A critical appreciation of lessons learned is essential for hunger reduction.

We, as heads of the Rome-based food and agriculture agencies, will continue working with our member countries to support their efforts to accelerate progress in improving food security and nutrition by strengthening their capacities and capabilities to realize their commitments to make hunger a part of history and not of our future.

José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General
Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD President
Ertharin Cousin, WFP Executive Director

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2014
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2014

SOFI 2013 | The multiple dimensions of Food Security

Thirteen years ago, world leaders came together to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration. They committed their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, setting out a series of targets to be met by 2015, which have become known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals express the world’s commitment to improving the lives of billions of people and addressing development challenges.

Under MDG 1, which aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, the world sought to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. With only two years remaining, 38 countries have reached this target, 18 of which have also achieved the even more stringent goal, established during the 1996 World Food Summit (WFS) in Rome, of halving the absolute number of hungry people in the same time period.

These successes demonstrate that, with political commitment, effective institutions, good policies, a comprehensive approach, and adequate levels of investment, we can win the fight against hunger and poverty, a necessary first step to arriving at the other development milestones set by the MDGs.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2013
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2013

As with every edition, the 2013 report of The State of Food Insecurity in the World updates progress towards the MDG and WFS hunger goals: globally, by region, and by individual country. For developing regions as a whole, the latest assessment suggests that further progress has been made towards the 2015 MDG target. The same progress, assessed against the more ambitious WFS goal, obviously appears much more modest. A total of 842 million people, or 12 percent of the world’s population, were experiencing chronic hunger in 2011–13, 26 million fewer than the number reported last year and down from 1,015 million in 1990–92.

SOFI 2012 | Economic growth is necessary but not suffcient to accelerate reduction of hunger and malnutrition

The 2012 edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World focuses on the importance of economic growth in overcoming poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. We are pleased to note that many, though not all, developing countries have enjoyed remarkable rates of growth during recent decades. High growth rates of GDP per capita are a key factor in reducing food insecurity and malnutrition. However, economic growth per se does not guarantee success. As Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen stated recently, it “requires active public policies to ensure that the fruits of economic growth are widely shared, and also requires – and this is very important – making good use of the public revenue generated by fast economic growth for social services, especially for public healthcare and public education.” We fully agree.

There are still too many circumstances in which the poor do not sufficiently benefit from economic growth. This may happen because growth originates in sectors that do not generate sufficient employment for the poor, or because they lack secure and fair access to productive assets, in particular land, water, and credit. Or it may happen because the poor cannot immediately make use of the opportunities provided by growth as a result of undernutrition, low levels of education, ill health, age, or social discrimination.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2012
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2012

However, one lesson that we have learned from success stories coming from all developing regions is that investment in agriculture, more so than investment in other sectors, can generate economic growth that delivers large benefits to the poor, hungry, and malnourished. We recognize, nonetheless, that this is not universally true. With urbanization continuing in developing countries, future efforts to address poverty and food insecurity will have to focus also on urban areas. However, agriculture is still the dominant source of employment in the economies of many low-income countries, and the urban poor spend most of their income on food. Moreover, for the foreseeable future, the majority of the poor and hungry will continue to live in rural areas and depend directly or indirectly on investments in rural infrastructure and smallholder-based agriculture to improve their livelihoods.

SOFI 2011 | How does international price volatility affect domestic economies and Food Security?

Small import-dependent countries, especially in Africa, were deeply affected by the food and economic crises. Indeed, many countries are still in crisis in different parts of the world, particularly the Horn of Africa. These crises are challenging our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by half by 2015. Even if the MDG were to be achieved by 2015, some 600 million people in developing countries would still be undernourished. Having 600 million human beings suffering from hunger on a daily basis is never acceptable. The entire international community must act today, and act forcefully and responsibly, to banish food insecurity from the planet.

This edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World focuses on food price volatility. Our organizations continue to monitor food prices and have alerted the world through a number of analytical reports on food price trends and ongoing volatility in recent years, as these continue to be a matter of concern for governments and people around the world. Indeed, high and volatile food prices are widely expected to continue in the future. Thus, we are pleased that in 2011 the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (G20) have been actively pursuing policy options for reducing food price volatility.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2011
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2011

By using previously unavailable data sources and studies, this report digs underneath the global-scale analyses to find out what happened in domestic markets and to draw lessons from the world food crisis of 2006–08. In particular, the report emphasizes that the impact of world price changes on household food security and nutrition is highly context-specific. The impact depends on the commodity, the national policies that affect price transmission from world markets to domestic markets, the demographic and production characteristics of different households, and a range of other factors. This diversity of impacts, both within and between countries, points to a need for improved data and analysis so that governments can implement better policies. Better and more predictable policies can not only reduce unwanted side effects on other countries but can simultaneously reduce food insecurity and domestic price volatility at home.
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This report also distinguishes clearly between the level of food prices and fluctuations in food prices (price volatility) because the costs and benefits of high food prices are very different from the costs of price volatility, especially when the fluctuations are not predictable.

We also continue to highlight the importance of the twin-track approach – improving both short-term access to food and food production in the medium term – in achieving long-lasting improvements in food security. In the short term, it is critical to design cost-effective safety nets that deliver the right targeted assistance to the right people at the right time. These short-term interventions are important to poor families because even temporary interruptions in the intake of energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life can lead to permanent reductions in cognitive capacities and, hence, earnings potential. In some cases, this will be consumers whose disposable income is severely affected by higher food prices. In other cases, it will be poor smallholder farmers who need help to cope with high input prices that, in the absence of well-functioning credit markets, may prevent these farmers from boosting their production and providing much-needed supplies on domestic and global markets, as well as increasing their income.

In the long term, investment in agriculture and improving resilience among farmers remain key to providing sustained access to food for all and reducing vulnerability to price volatility and natural disasters such as drought. Improved seeds and farm management techniques, as well as irrigation and fertilizer that sustainably increase productivity and reduce production risk, must be delivered to farmers, especially smallholders, by both the private and public sectors. Governments must ensure that a transparent and predictable regulatory environment is in place, one that promotes private investment and increases farm productivity. We must reduce food waste in developed countries through education and policies, and reduce food losses in developing countries by boosting investment in the entire value chain, especially post-harvest processing. More sustainable management of our natural resources, forests, and fisheries are critical for the food security of many of the poorest members of society.

We are optimistic that global food security will be achieved. We have made progress in the past and will make more progress in the future, but only if we are committed to favorable policies, market information transparency, sound analysis, good science, and adequate funding for appropriate interventions. The entire international community must commit to raising the profile of the agriculture-food system not just for the next few years but until the time when everyone, at all times, has physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. And even then, agriculture and food security must continue to be a priority for both national governments and the global community to ensure the sustainability of achievements. Increased investment in agriculture, safety nets targeted at the most vulnerable, and measures to reduce food price volatility need to be an integral part of this commitment.

This is the third edition of this report that has been produced collaboratively between FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) in what has proved to be a fruitful venture. This year, for the first time, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has joined in this collaboration. With our three organizations working together, we expect the report to continue to grow in the relevance of its analysis and robustness of its results. We also thank the United States Department of Agriculture for its continued willingness to share its expertise and contribute to this report.

Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General
Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD President
Josette Sheeran, WFP Executive Director

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2011
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2011

SOFI 2010 | Addressing Food Insecurity in protracted crises

The number of undernourished people in the world remains unacceptably high, near the one billion mark, despite an expected decline in 2010 for the first time since 1995. This decline is largely attributable to the increased economic growth foreseen in 2010—particularly in developing countries—and the fall in international food prices since 2008. The recent increase in food prices, if it persists, will create additional obstacles in the fight to further reduce hunger.

However, a total of 925 million people are still estimated to be undernourished in 2010, representing almost 16 percent of the population of developing countries. The fact that nearly a billion people remain hungry even after the recent food and financial crises have largely passed indicates a deeper structural problem that gravely threatens the ability to achieve internationally agreed goals on hunger reduction: the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and the 1996 World Food Summit goal. It is also evident that economic growth, while essential, will not be sufficient in itself to eliminate hunger within an acceptable period of time.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2010
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2010

This edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World focuses on people living in a group of countries where the incidence of hunger is particularly high and persistent, and which face particular challenges in meeting the MDG targets—namely countries in protracted crisis. These countries are characterized by long-lasting or recurring crises, both natural and human-induced, and limited capacity to respond. In the 22 countries identified by this report as being in protracted crisis (or containing areas in protracted crisis), the most recent data show that more than 166 million people are undernourished, representing nearly 40 percent of the population of these countries and nearly 20 percent of all undernourished people in the world.

This unacceptably high degree of hunger results from many factors, including armed conflict and natural disasters, often in combination with weak governance or public administration, scarce resources, unsustainable livelihood systems, and the breakdown of local institutions.
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Faced with so many obstacles, it is little wonder that protracted crises can become a self-perpetuating vicious cycle. Protracted crises are not a series of one-off, short-lived phenomena, and they are not temporary interruptions from which countries easily return to a path towards longer-term development. Rather, they represent ongoing and fundamental threats to both lives and livelihoods, from which recovery may become progressively more difficult over time.

Protracted crises call for specially designed and targeted assistance. Assistance focused on the immediate need to save lives is critical in protracted crises—as it is in shorter-duration emergencies—but in protracted crises, it is also essential to direct assistance towards underlying drivers and longer-term impacts. These may include conflict, disintegration of institutions, depletion of resources, loss of livelihoods, and displacement of populations. There is thus an urgent need for assistance in protracted crises to protect livelihoods as well as lives, because this will help put the country on a constructive path to recovery.

Despite these additional needs, trends in development assistance give cause for concern: nearly two-thirds of countries in protracted crisis receive less development assistance per person than the average for least-developed countries. More importantly, agriculture receives only 3 to 4 percent of development and humanitarian assistance funds in countries in protracted crisis, despite accounting for 32 percent of their gross domestic product and supporting the livelihoods of 62 percent of their populations.

There are a number of things that we can do to improve the way we handle protracted crises and provide more effective and lasting help for people living in these situations. Lessons from the experience of many countries show that building longer-term assistance activities on the framework of existing or revitalized local institutions offers the best hope of long-term sustainability and real improvement of food security. Social protection mechanisms, such as school meals, cash and food-for-work activities, and vouchers, can make a vital difference in the long term. Food assistance contributes to building these social protection mechanisms—providing food as part of safety net programs, stimulating markets through the purchase of food aid supplies on local markets or through cash-based schemes—and helps to bridge the gap between traditional humanitarian assistance and longer-term development assistance. Efforts should also aim at achieving sustained, long-term improvements in the productive capacity of vulnerable countries and, at the same time, strengthening their resilience to shocks. Underlying all of these improved responses, a proper understanding of the nature of protracted crises themselves constitutes an essential step towards addressing their specific problems. These messages are developed further in the report, and provide the basis for specific recommendations to support improved understanding and, most importantly, stronger and more effective responses to help people in protracted crisis situations break the downward cycle.

The 2010 edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World is again the product of close collaboration between our two organizations and other partners. Drawing on the expertise and knowledge of staff from both organizations has brought a fresh perspective to the issues of food insecurity in countries in protracted crisis and has provided a platform for a new vision on combining the strengths of humanitarian assistance with longer-term development assistance. We hope that this report will shape the response by decision-makers at local, national, regional, and international levels to improve food security in protracted crises, and ultimately, to save lives, strengthen communities, and help build a more hopeful, prosperous, and self-sufficient future.

Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General
Josette Sheeran, WFP Executive Director

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2010
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2010

SOFI 2009 | Economic crises – impacts and lessons learned

This report comes at a time of severe economic crisis. Countries across the globe are seeing their economies slow and recede. No nation is immune, and as usual, it is the poorest countries—and the poorest people—that are suffering the most. As a result of the economic crisis, estimates reported in this edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World show that, for the first time since 1970, more than one billion people—about 100 million more than last year and around one-sixth of all humanity—are hungry and undernourished worldwide.

The current crisis is historically unprecedented, with several factors converging to make it particularly damaging to people at risk of food insecurity. First, it overlaps with a food crisis that in 2006–08 pushed the prices of basic staples beyond the reach of millions of poor people. Although they have retreated from their mid-2008 highs, international food commodity prices remain high by recent historical standards and volatile. Domestic prices have been slower to fall. At the end of 2008, domestic staple food prices remained, on average, 17 percent higher in real terms than two years earlier. The price increases had forced many poor families to sell assets or sacrifice health care, education, or food just to stay afloat. With their resources stretched to the breaking point, those households will find it difficult to ride out the economic storm.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2009
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2009

Second, the crisis is affecting large parts of the world simultaneously. Previous economic crises that hit developing countries tended to be confined to individual countries or several countries in a particular region. In such situations, affected countries made recourse to various instruments such as currency devaluation, borrowing, or increased use of official assistance to face the effects of the crisis. In a global crisis, the scope of such instruments becomes more limited.

Third, with developing countries today more financially and commercially integrated into the world economy than they were 20 years ago, they are far more exposed to shocks in international markets. Indeed, many countries have experienced across-the-board drops in their trade and financial inflows and have seen their export earnings, foreign investment, development aid, and remittances falling.
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This situation will conspire not only to reduce employment opportunities but also to reduce the money available for government programs that are indispensable to promoting growth and supporting those in need.

Faced with the crisis, households are forced to find ways to cope. Coping mechanisms involve undesirable but often unavoidable compromises, such as replacing more nutritious food with less nutritious food, selling productive assets, withdrawing children from school, forgoing health care or education, or simply eating less. Based on direct interviews with people who are most affected by food insecurity, country case studies conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) included in this year’s report give an insight into how households are affected by the fall in remittances and other impacts of the economic downturn. The case studies also show how governments are responding to the crisis by investing in agriculture and infrastructure and expanding safety nets. These interventions will help to save lives and families, although given the severity of the crisis, much more needs to be done.

If global food security is to be achieved and sustained as soon as possible, the twin-track approach supported by FAO, WFP, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and their development partners will be crucial. This strategy seeks to address both the shorter-term acute hunger spurred by food or economic shocks and the longer-term chronic hunger that is symptomatic of extreme poverty.

To help hungry people now, safety nets and social protection programs must be created or improved to reach those most in need. Among these, national food safety-net programs, such as school feeding or voucher programs, should be designed to stimulate the local economy by creating jobs and increasing agriculture and local value-added food production. In addition, they should integrate best practices to be affordable and sustainable, with handover plans embedded and scalable in the face of crises and shocks. At the same time, small-scale farmers need access to modern inputs, resources, and technologies—such as high-quality seeds, fertilizers, feed, and farming tools and equipment—that will allow them to boost productivity and production. This should, in turn, lower food prices for poor consumers, both rural and urban.

To ensure that hunger is conquered in the years to come, developing countries must be assisted with the development, economic, and policy tools required to boost their agriculture sectors in terms of both productivity and resilience in the face of crises. Stable and effective policies, regulatory and institutional mechanisms, and functional market infrastructures that promote investment in the agriculture sector are paramount. Investments in food and agricultural science and technology need to be stepped up. Without robust agricultural systems and stronger global food security governance mechanisms, many countries will continue to struggle to increase production in line with demand, move food to where it is needed, and find foreign exchange to finance their food import requirements.

Whenever possible, efforts should be integrated and produce a multiplier effect. For instance, local purchase of produce for school meals can generate income and guaranteed markets for smallholder farmers—both men and women—while community grain reserves can serve as a local food safety net. The food crisis has propelled agriculture and food security, especially in developing countries, back onto the front pages of newspapers and the top of policymakers’ agendas. The Joint Statement on Global Food Security (“L’Aquila Food Security Initiative”) produced by the G8 with partner governments, agencies, and institutions, is a testimony to this renewed commitment of the global community. Nevertheless, there is a risk that a preoccupation with stagnating developed country economies and failing corporations due to the financial and economic crisis will shift resources away from the plight of the poorer countries. Yet food, the most basic of all human needs, is no more affordable, leaving more and more people without the means to consistently obtain nutritious food throughout the year. Indeed, if the food crisis was about higher prices, the economic crisis is about lower household incomes, which can be even more devastating, aggravating already unacceptable levels of food insecurity and poverty.

Past economic crises have typically led to declines in public investment in agriculture. However, history tells us that there is no greater engine for driving growth and thereby reducing poverty and hunger than investing in agriculture, complemented by programs that ensure people can access the food that is produced. Despite the difficult global economic conditions, support to agriculture should not be reduced; indeed, it must be increased. A healthy agriculture sector, combined with a growing non-farm economy and effective safety nets and social protection programs, including food safety nets and nutrition assistance programs, is a proven way to eradicate poverty and food insecurity in a sustainable manner.

This year’s State of Food Insecurity in the World is a true collaborative effort between our two organizations, combining our different strengths to create new insights and a publication that benefited tremendously from our joint cooperation. Collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture on certain parts of the report has also been instrumental and is highly valued; we thank them for their efforts and willingness to share their expertise.

Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General
Josette Sheeran, WFP Executive Director

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2009
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2009

SOFI 2008 | High food prices and food security – threats and opportunities

Millions More Food-Insecure – Urgent Action and Substantial Investments Needed

Soaring food prices have triggered worldwide concern about threats to global food security, shaking the unjustified complacency created by many years of low commodity prices. From 3 to 5 June 2008, representatives of 180 countries plus the European Union, including many Heads of State and Government, met in Rome to express their conviction “that the international community needs to take urgent and coordinated action to combat the negative impacts of soaring food prices on the world’s most vulnerable countries and populations”. At the G8 Summit in Japan in July 2008, the leaders of the world’s most industrialized nations voiced their deep concern “that the steep rise in global food prices, coupled with availability problems in a number of developing countries, is threatening global food security”.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2008
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2008

Moving Away from Hunger Reduction Goals

The concerns of the international community are well founded. For the first time since FAO started monitoring undernourishment trends, the number of chronically hungry people is higher in the most recent period relative to the base period. FAO estimates that, mainly as a result of high food prices, the number of chronically hungry people in the world rose by 75 million in 2007 to reach 923 million.

The devastating effects of high food prices on the number of hungry people compound already worrisome long-term trends. Our analysis shows that in 2003–05, before the recent rise in food prices, there were 6 million more chronically hungry people in the world than in 1990–92, the baseline period against which progress towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Summit hunger reduction targets is measured. Early gains in hunger reduction achieved in a number of developing regions by the mid-1990s have not been sustained. Hunger has increased as the world has grown richer and produced more food than ever in the last decade.
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As this report has pointed out many times, this disappointing outcome reflects the lack of concerted action to combat hunger despite global commitments.

Soaring food prices have reversed some of the gains and successes in hunger reduction, making the mission of achieving the internationally agreed goals on hunger reduction more difficult. The task of reducing the number of hungry people by 500 million in the remaining seven years to 2015 will require an enormous and resolute global effort and concrete actions.

Poorest and Most Vulnerable Worst Hit

Food price increases have exacerbated the situation for many countries already in need of emergency interventions and food assistance due to other factors such as severe weather and conflict. Countries already afflicted by emergencies have to deal with the added burden of high food prices on food security, while others become more vulnerable to food insecurity because of high prices. Developing countries, especially the poorest, face difficult choices between maintaining macroeconomic stability and putting in place policies and programs to deal with the negative impact of high food and fuel prices on their people.

Riots and civil disturbances, which have taken place in many low- and middle-income developing countries, signal the desperation caused by soaring food and fuel prices for millions of poor and also middle-class households. Analysis in this report shows that high food prices have a particularly devastating effect on the poorest in both urban and rural areas, the landless and female-headed households. Unless urgent measures are taken, high food prices may have detrimental long-term effects on human development as households, in their effort to deal with rising food bills, either reduce the quantity and quality of food consumed, cut expenditure on health and education, or sell productive assets. Children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers are at highest risk. Past experience with high food prices fully justifies such fears.

A Strategic Response: The Twin-Track Approach

The food crisis brought about by soaring food prices in many developing countries needs an urgent and concrete response. At the same time, it should be recognized that high food prices are the result of a delicate balance between food supply and demand. These two facts show that, more than ever before, the twin-track approach to hunger reduction advocated by FAO and its development partners is key to addressing not only the threats to food security caused by high food prices but also the opportunities that arise. In the immediate term, carefully targeted safety nets and social protection programs are urgently required to ensure that everyone can access the food they need for a healthy life. In parallel, the focus should be on helping producers, especially small-scale farmers, to boost food production, mainly by facilitating their access to seeds, fertilizers, animal feed, and other inputs. This should improve food supplies and lower prices in local markets.

In the medium-to-long term, the focus should be on strengthening the agriculture sectors of developing countries to enable them to respond to growth in demand. Expanding food production in poor countries through enhanced productivity must constitute the cornerstone of policies, strategies, and programs seeking to attain a sustainable solution for food security. High food prices and the incentives they provide can be harnessed to relaunch agriculture in the developing world. This is essential not only to face the current crisis, but also to respond to the increasing demand for food, feed, and biofuel production and to prevent the recurrence of such crises in the future.

Relaunching agriculture in developing countries is also critical for the achievement of meaningful results in poverty and hunger reduction and to reverse the current worrisome trends. This will entail empowering large numbers of small-scale farmers worldwide to expand agricultural output. Turning agricultural growth into an engine for poverty reduction means addressing the structural constraints facing agriculture, particularly for the millions of smallholder producers in agriculture-based economies. This calls for expanded public investment in rural infrastructure and essential services—in roads, irrigation facilities, water harvesting, storage, slaughterhouses, fishing ports, and credit, as well as electricity, schools, and health services—in order to create favorable conditions for private investment in rural areas.

At the same time, increased resources must be devoted to more sustainable technologies that support more intensive agriculture and that assist farmers to increase the resilience of their food production systems and to cope with climate change.

A Coherent and Coordinated Strategy is Vital

Many developing countries have taken unilateral action in efforts to contain the negative effects of high food prices, including the imposition of price controls and export restrictions. Such responses may not be sustainable and would actually contribute to further rises in world price levels and instability.

To face threats and exploit opportunities posed by high food prices effectively and efficiently, strategies must be based on a comprehensive and coordinated multilateral response. Urgent, broad-based, and large-scale investments are needed to address in a sustainable manner the growing food-insecurity problems affecting the poor and hungry. No single country or institution will be able to resolve this crisis on its own. Governments of developing and developed countries, donors, United Nations agencies, international institutions, civil society, and the private sector all have important roles to play in the global fight against hunger.

It is vital that the international community share a common vision of how best to assist governments in eradicating chronic hunger, and that all parties work together to translate this vision into reality on the scale required. The situation cannot wait any longer.

The resolve of world leaders at the June 2008 Summit on World Food Security in Rome and the fact that the G8 Summit placed concerns surrounding high food and fuel prices at the top of its agenda demonstrates a growing political will to address hunger. Moreover, substantial commitments have been made for increased financial support to developing countries to address the food security threats caused by high food prices. Nevertheless, unless this political will and donor pledges are turned into urgent and real actions, millions more will fall into deep poverty and chronic hunger.

The need for concerted action to combat hunger and malnutrition has never been stronger. I am hopeful that the global community will rise to the challenge.

Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2008
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2008

SOFI 2006 | Eradicating world hunger– taking stock ten years after the World Food Summit

Despite Setbacks, the Race Against Hunger Can Be Won

In November 1996, the world turned its attention to Rome, where heads of state and government from more than 180 nations attending the World Food Summit (WFS) pledged to eradicate one of the worst scourges weighing on society’s collective conscience: hunger. As an important step towards this noble and long overdue objective, world leaders committed themselves to what was considered an ambitious but attainable intermediate target: to halve by 2015 the number of undernourished people in the world from the 1990 level. Ten years later, we are confronted with the sad reality that virtually no progress has been made toward that objective. Compared with 1990–92, the number of undernourished people in developing countries has declined by a meager 3 million—a number within the bounds of statistical error. This is the situation facing representatives of the Committee on World Food Security, meeting in Rome this year to take stock of progress and setbacks experienced since the Summit and to propose further action.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2006
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2006

Not all news is dismal, however. Despite disappointing performances in reducing the number of hungry people, a smaller percentage of the populations of developing countries is undernourished today compared with 1990–92: 17 percent against 20 percent. Furthermore, FAO’s projections suggest that the proportion of hungry people in developing countries in 2015 could be about half of what it was in 1990–92: a drop from 20 to 10 percent. This means that the world is on a path toward meeting the Millennium Development Goal on hunger reduction. The same projections, however, also indicate that the WFS target could be missed: some 582 million people could still be undernourished in 2015 versus 412 million if the WFS goal were to be met.

The news cannot come as a surprise. Time and again, through The State of Food Insecurity in the World as well as other channels, FAO has pointed out that insufficient progress is being made in alleviating hunger.
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This publication has highlighted the discrepancy between what could (and should) be done and what is actually being done for the millions of people suffering from hunger. We have emphasized first and foremost that reducing hunger is no longer a question of means in the hands of the global community. The world is richer today than it was ten years ago. There is more food available and still more could be produced without excessive upward pressure on prices. The knowledge and resources to reduce hunger are there. What is lacking is sufficient political will to mobilize those resources to the benefit of the hungry. Past issues of this report have stressed the urgency of accelerating the pace in what has literally been termed “the race against hunger.” They have reiterated the need to move from rhetoric to concrete action.

Hunger Reduction: Challenges and Priorities

When observing global trends in the number of undernourished people, it is almost a natural reaction to dismiss the period since the WFS as a “lost decade.” To do so, however, would be a serious mistake. It would compound existing skepticism and would risk detracting from positive action being taken. It would also obscure the fact that much has been accomplished in securing a top place for hunger on the development agenda.

What also warrants clarification is that the stagnation in the overall number of undernourished people reflects the net outcome of progress in some countries combined with setbacks in others. Even within a single country, it is not uncommon to find differences among regions. Experiences documented so far show that hunger reduction is possible, even in some of the poorest countries in the world. There is much to be learned from these successful cases. Countries experiencing setbacks, on the other hand, underscore the need for us to scale up proven models and strategies while, at the same time, sharpening the focus on problem areas where hunger is endemic and persistent.

Among the developing regions today, the greatest challenge is the one facing sub-Saharan Africa. It is the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, with one in three people deprived of access to sufficient food. FAO’s projections suggest that the prevalence of hunger in this region will decline by 2015 but that the number of hungry people will not fall below that of 1990–92. By then, sub-Saharan Africa will be home to around 30 percent of the undernourished people in the developing world, compared with 20 percent in 1990–92.

A number of countries suffering setbacks in hunger reduction are experiencing conflict or other forms of disaster. But, likewise, projections show a formidable task ahead for countries that may be free of conflict, but which rely on a poor agricultural resource base and exhibit weak overall economic and institutional development in the face of persistently high rates of population growth.

When assessing progress within countries, it is generally in the rural areas that hunger is concentrated. At present, it is in these areas that the majority of poor and food-insecure people live. In turn, urban poverty tends to be fueled by people migrating towards the cities in an attempt to escape the deprivations associated with rural livelihoods. Partly due to the rural decline, the world is urbanizing at a fast pace and it will not be long before a greater part of developing country populations is living in large cities. Therefore, urban food security and its related problems should also be placed high on the agenda in the years to come.

Twin-Track – A Tried and Effective Approach

The concentration of hunger in rural areas suggests that no sustained reduction in hunger is possible without special emphasis on agricultural and rural development. In countries and regions where hunger remains widespread, agriculture often holds the key to achieving both economic progress and sustained reductions in undernourishment. History has taught us that, in general, those countries that have managed to reduce hunger have not only experienced more rapid overall economic growth but have also achieved greater gains in agricultural productivity than those experiencing setbacks or stagnation. It follows that investments in agriculture, and more broadly in the rural economy, are often a prerequisite for accelerated hunger reduction. The agriculture sector tends to be the engine of growth for entire rural economies, and productivity-driven increases in agricultural output can expand food supplies and reduce food prices in local markets, raise farm incomes and boost the overall local economy by generating demand for locally produced goods and services.

By now, it is well understood that hunger compromises the health and productivity of individuals and their efforts to escape poverty. It acts as a brake on the potential economic and social development of whole societies. It is no coincidence that more rapid advances have been made in poverty reduction as opposed to hunger alleviation. Indeed, escaping poverty seems to be much more difficult for hungry people, who are disadvantaged in their capacity to earn a livelihood. Accelerating hunger reduction consequently requires direct measures to help people who are both poor and ill-fed to escape the hunger-poverty trap. Empirical evidence from an increasing number of countries illustrates the powerful contribution that direct and carefully targeted measures can make to both hunger and poverty reduction.

A twin-track approach, emphasizing direct action against hunger along with a focus on agricultural and rural development, is effective in providing the most vulnerable and food-insecure people with new livelihood possibilities and hope for a better life. Efforts to promote the twin-track approach as the principal strategic framework for hunger reduction should therefore be at the center of poverty reduction initiatives at all levels.

Reaching the WFS Goal: It Can Be Done

Conditions are currently ripe for hastening effective hunger reduction strategies and moving countries decisively towards the WFS target and beyond—towards the total eradication of world hunger. It is fair to say that the international community today pays more attention to hunger as an intrinsic and pressing development issue. Hunger has been raised to a more prominent position in national anti-poverty programs and similar initiatives, and there is more widespread and vocal acknowledgment of the fact that the persistence of chronic hunger in the midst of plenty is an unacceptable contradiction. On the part of governments, civil society, and other organizations, there is a greater awareness of the steps that need to be taken and, more importantly, the resolve to instigate and catalyze the necessary action appears to have been strengthened.

Today, ten years after the WFS, we can resume the “race against hunger” with renewed vigor, seeking to honor the commitments made ten years ago but, ideally, aiming well beyond the WFS target. We must dispel any complacency that may be engendered by the abundance of world food supplies, by the general increase in agricultural productivity, or by the expansion of international trade possibilities. The coexistence of food abundance or even overnutrition with food deprivation, even in the same countries or communities, has been a reality for decades and, unless conditions conducive to chronic hunger are eliminated, the two extremes will continue to coexist in the future.

Is the 2015 WFS target still attainable? The answer should be a resounding “Yes,” as long as concrete and concerted action, following the WFS Plan of Action, is taken and stepped up immediately. Already ten years ago, signatories to the Rome Declaration emphasized the urgency of the task “for which the primary responsibility rests with individual governments,” but for which cooperation with international organizations and civil society—including both public and private sectors—is vital. Today, we are confident that the race against hunger can still be won, but only if the necessary resources, political will, and correct policies are forthcoming. We fully agree with the principal conclusion of the UN Millennium Project’s Hunger Task Force: It can be done.

Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2006
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2006

SOFI 2005 | Eradicating world hunger – key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals

Towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goal Targets: Food Comes First

“We pledge our political will and our common and national commitment to achieving food security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.” (Rome Declaration, 1996)

“We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty …”. (Millennium Declaration, 2000)

Only ten years remain before the 2015 deadline by which world leaders have pledged to reduce hunger and extreme poverty by half and to make substantial gains in education, health, social equity, environmental sustainability, and international solidarity. Without stronger commitment and more rapid progress, most of those goals will not be met.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2005
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2005

If each of the developing regions continues to reduce hunger at the current pace, only South America and the Caribbean will reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of cutting the proportion of hungry people by half. None will reach the more ambitious World Food Summit (WFS) goal of halving the number of hungry people. Progress towards the other MDG targets has also lagged, particularly in the countries and regions where efforts to reduce hunger have stalled, as the accompanying graph clearly illustrates.

Most, if not all, of the WFS and MDG targets can still be reached. But only if efforts are redoubled and refocused. And only by recognizing and acting on two key points:
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1. Without rapid progress in reducing hunger, achieving all of the other MDGs will be difficult, if not impossible; and
2. The fight to eliminate hunger and reach the other MDGs will be won or lost in the rural areas where the vast majority of the world’s hungry people live.

Food Comes First

As this report documents, hunger and malnutrition are major causes of the deprivation and suffering targeted by all of the other MDGs:

– Hungry children start school later, if at all, drop out sooner, and learn less while they do attend, stalling progress towards universal primary and secondary education (MDG 2).
– Poor nutrition for women is one of the most damaging outcomes of gender inequality. It undermines women’s health, stunts their opportunities for education and employment, and impedes progress towards gender equality and empowerment of women (MDG 3).
– As the underlying cause of more than half of all child deaths, hunger and malnutrition are the greatest obstacles to reducing child mortality (MDG 4).
– Hunger and malnutrition increase both the incidence and the fatality rate of conditions that cause a majority of maternal deaths during pregnancy and childbirth (MDG 5).
– Hunger and poverty compromise people’s immune systems, force them to adopt risky survival strategies, and greatly increase the risk of infection and death from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases (MDG 6).
– Under the burden of chronic poverty and hunger, livestock herders, subsistence farmers, forest dwellers, and fisherfolk may use their natural environment in unsustainable ways, leading to further deterioration of their livelihood conditions. Empowering the poor and hungry as custodians of land, waters, forests, and biodiversity can advance both food security and environmental sustainability (MDG 7).

Giving Priority to Rural Areas

Given the importance of hunger as a cause of poverty, illiteracy, disease, and mortality, and given the fact that 75 percent of the world’s hungry people live in rural areas, it is hardly surprising that these same rural areas are home to the vast majority of the 121 million children who do not attend school, of the nearly 11 million children who die before reaching the age of five, of the 530,000 women who die during pregnancy and childbirth, of the 300 million cases of acute malaria, and of more than 1 million malaria deaths each year. Clearly, to bring these numbers down and to reach the MDG targets, priority must be given to rural areas and to agriculture as the mainstay of rural livelihoods through sustainable and secure systems of production that provide employment and income to the poor, thus improving their access to food.

Yet, in recent decades, agriculture and rural development have lost ground on the development agenda. Over the past 20 years, resources for these sectors have declined by more than 50 percent. That must change. And we can be encouraged by signs that it is indeed changing, that both national governments and international donors are recognizing the critical importance of rural areas as the location and agriculture as the engine for reaching the MDGs.

After years of dwindling support for agriculture, the countries of the African Union have committed themselves to increasing the share of their national budgets allocated to agriculture and rural development to 10 percent within five years. The Commission for Africa has emphasized that “agriculture is key to Africa.” The United Nations Millennium Project has stated that “the global epicenter of extreme poverty is the smallholder farmer.” If increased recognition leads to scaled-up action, the MDGs can still be reached.

For far too long, hunger and poverty have driven an infernal engine of deprivation and suffering. The time and the opportunity have finally come to throw that engine into forward gear – to turn hunger reduction into the driving force for progress and hope, as improved nutrition fuels better health, increases school attendance, reduces child and maternal mortality, empowers women, lowers the incidence and mortality rates of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, and helps reverse the degradation of soil and water resources, the destruction of forests, and the loss of biodiversity.

It can be done.

Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2005
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2005

SOFI 2004 | Monitoring progress towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals

Towards the World Food Summit Target: Confronting the Crippling Costs of Hunger

As we approach the mid-term review of progress towards the World Food Summit (WFS) goal, FAO’s latest report on the state of food insecurity in the world highlights three irrefutable facts and three inescapable conclusions:

Fact number one: to date, efforts to reduce chronic hunger in the developing world have fallen far short of the pace required to cut the number of hungry people by half no later than the year 2015 (see graph). We must do better.

Fact number two: despite slow and faltering progress on a global scale, numerous countries in all regions of the developing world have proven that success is possible. More than 30 countries, with a total population of over 2.2 billion people, have reduced the prevalence of undernourishment by 25 percent and have made significant progress towards reducing the number of hungry people by half by the year 2015. We can do better.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2004
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2004

Fact number three: the costs of not taking immediate and strenuous action to reduce hunger at comparable rates worldwide are staggering. This is the central message I would like to convey to readers of this report. Every year that hunger continues at present levels costs more than 5 million children their lives and costs developing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and earnings. The costs of interventions that could sharply reduce hunger are trivial in comparison. We cannot afford not to do better.

We MUST Do Better

According to FAO’s latest estimates, the number of hungry people in the developing world has declined by only 9 million since the WFS
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baseline period, despite commitments made. More alarming still, the number has actually increased over the most recent five years for which numbers are available. In three of the four developing regions, more people were undernourished in 2000–2002 than had been the case in 1995–1997. Only Latin America and the Caribbean registered a modest reduction in the number of hungry people.

We CAN Do Better

More than 30 countries, representing nearly half the population of the developing world, have provided both proof that rapid progress is possible and lessons in how that progress can be achieved.

This successful group of countries is striking for several reasons. Every developing region is represented, not only those whose rapid economic growth has been widely touted. Asia accounts for by far the largest drop in the number of hungry people. But sub-Saharan Africa boasts the most countries that have brought the prevalence of hunger down by 25 percent or more, although often from very high levels at the outset.

Among the African countries are several that demonstrate another key lesson – that war and civil conflict must be regarded as major causes not only of short-term food emergencies but of widespread chronic hunger. Several countries that have recently emerged from the nightmare of conflict figure prominently among those that have registered steady progress since the WFS as well as those that have scored rapid gains over the past five years.

Many of the countries that have achieved rapid progress in reducing hunger have something else in common – significantly better than average agricultural growth. Within the group of more than 30 countries that are on track to reach the WFS goal, agricultural GDP increased at an average annual rate of 3.2 percent, almost one full percentage point faster than for the developing countries as a whole.

Several of these countries have also led the way in implementing a twin-track strategy to attack hunger – strengthening social safety nets to put food on the tables of those who need it most on the one hand, while attacking the root causes of hunger with initiatives to stimulate food production, increase employability, and reduce poverty on the other.

In certain cases, as Brazil’s Zero Hunger Programme has demonstrated by buying food for school lunch programs and other food safety nets from local small and medium-sized farms, the two tracks can be brought together in a virtuous circle of better diets, increased food availability, rising incomes, and improved food security.

We Cannot Afford Not to Do Better

In moral terms, just stating the fact that one child dies every five seconds as a result of hunger and malnutrition should be enough to prove that we cannot afford to allow the scourge of hunger to continue. Case closed.

In economic terms, the case is more complex but no less cogent. Every child whose physical and mental development is stunted by hunger and malnutrition stands to lose 5 to 10 percent in lifetime earnings. On a global scale, every year that hunger persists at current levels causes deaths and disability that will cost developing countries future productivity with a present discounted value of US$500 billion or more.

This crushing economic burden is borne by those who can afford it least, by people struggling to eke out a living on less than a dollar a day, by countries whose economies and development efforts are slowed or stalled by lack of productivity and resources.

Studies by the Academy for Educational Development cited in this report suggest that 15 countries in Africa and Latin America could reduce protein-energy malnutrition by half between now and 2015 at a cost of just US$25 million per year. Over a ten-year period, that investment would pay for targeted interventions that would save the lives of almost 900,000 children and yield long-term gains in productivity worth more than US$1 billion.

FAO’s own estimates of the costs and benefits of action to accelerate progress towards the WFS goal suggest that US$24 billion a year in public investment, associated with additional private investment, would lead to a boost in annual GDP amounting to US$120 billion as a result of longer and healthier lives.

Simply stated, the question is not whether we can afford to take the urgent and immediate action needed to reach and surpass the WFS goal. The question is whether we can afford not to. And the answer is an emphatic, resounding no.

The hungry cannot wait. And neither can the rest of the human family.

Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2004
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2004

SOFI 2001 | Food Insecurity: when people must live with hunger and fear starvation

Rallying Political Will and Resources to “Get Back on Track”

The tragedy of hunger in the midst of plenty is still a stark reality in today’s world. In virtually every country, there are groups of people who cannot realize their full human potential, either because their diets are inadequate or, because of sickness, their bodies are unable to benefit fully from the food they consume. In the poorest countries, the majority of people are affected by hunger, greatly magnifying the dimensions of other correctable defects in efforts to meet basic human needs.

“The State of Food Insecurity in the World” monitors the progress made each year towards fulfillment of the basic right of all human beings to live without fear of hunger or malnutrition. This third issue conveys a mixed message: progress has been made in reducing the absolute number of hungry people in the world, but this is not happening fast enough to achieve the 1996 World Food Summit target – that of halving the number of hungry people by 2015. A report on progress towards this goal is especially important in 2001, in view of the follow-up event, the World Food Summit: five years later, called by FAO for November 2001 to encourage national leaders to review as a matter of urgency the rate of improvement in food security and to take corrective action where needed.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2001
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2001

Over the past decade, the total number of chronically undernourished in the developing world has fallen by approximately 40 million but the average rate of decline has continued to slow, reaching only 6 million a year, compared with the 8 million reported in the 1999 issue of this publication. Consequently, the annual reduction required to reach the target by 2015 has grown from 20 to 22 million people per year. Hence the gap – between reductions realized and reductions needed – is widening. Continuing at the current rate, it would take more than 60 years to reach the target.

SOFI 2000 | Food Insecurity: when people must live with hunger and fear starvation

Within every society, rich and poor, there are children too hungry to concentrate in school, underweight mothers who give birth to sickly children, and chronically hungry adults who lack the energy to raise their families above the subsistence level. Where hunger is widespread, it is also a basic development issue impeding national economic growth and keeping millions trapped in poverty.

The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) was created to track progress towards ending this profound obstacle to human rights, quality of life, and dignity. It was spurred by the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome, where leaders of 186 countries pledged to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world by 2015.

In this, the second edition, we introduce a new tool for measuring the severity of want: the depth of hunger. This is a measure of the per-person food deficit of the undernourished population within each country. Measured in kilocalories, it aims to assess just how empty people’s plates are each day.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2000
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2000

Measurements of the depth of hunger demonstrate that undernourishment is far more debilitating in some places than in others. In the industrialized countries, hungry people lack 130 kilocalories per day on average, while in five of the poorest countries, the daily food deficit is more than three times that, 450 kilocalories. Most of the countries with the most extreme depth of hunger (more than 300 kilocalories per person per day) are located in Africa; others are found in the Near East (Afghanistan), the Caribbean (Haiti), and Asia (Bangladesh, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Mongolia). Many of these countries face extraordinary obstacles such as conflict or recurrent natural disasters. They require special attention to lift them out of their current state of deep poverty and dire food insecurity.

SOFI 2000 also updates the estimate of the number of undernourished people. And I am disturbed to report that we find no significant change
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for the latest period, 1996-98, compared with the 1995-97 period reported last year. We still estimate that 792 million people in 98 developing nations are not getting enough food to lead normal, healthy, and active lives. Even in the industrialized nations and the countries in transition (those in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union), the number of undernourished remains the same: 34 million children, women, and men.

In a world of unprecedented wealth, these levels of need are disgraceful. To realize the Summit target, we have to achieve a reduction of at least 20 million every year between now and 2015. The actual rate of decline, of slightly fewer than 8 million per year since the early 1990s, is woefully inadequate. We cannot sit by and hope that hunger will decrease simply as a by-product of rising incomes and slower population growth. Under that “business as usual” scenario, we would reduce global hunger by slightly less than one-third, not one-half.

Can we direct our efforts to get “on track” for reducing hunger by 50 percent? The World Food Summit goal is reachable, just as other seemingly impossible aims have been met, such as the eradication of polio or putting a person on the moon. What we need to do is adopt more urgent, targeted measures quickly. As in last year’s edition, SOFI 2000 highlights short-term and long-term measures that together offer possible solutions to hunger:

• We must address conflict, the cause of the deepest hunger in most of the poorest countries of the world. Conflict resolution and peacekeeping activities must be seen as vital tools in fighting hunger. Once peace is achieved, war-shattered economies must be rebuilt.

• We must make the investment needed to build foundations for sustainable, longer-term economic growth and poverty reduction. Our story on Thailand shows how undernourishment was greatly reduced over 15 years as a result of economic growth and specific policies to reduce poverty and improve nutrition levels.

• We must set priorities. Countries and their development partners must target the people who are suffering the deepest hunger. Safety nets – from cash transfers to school lunch programs – must be in place to protect the most vulnerable.

• We must orient agricultural research towards improvement of agricultural commodity production, which helps the poor in the cities as well as in the countryside. This is illustrated by our story on the research efforts that vastly increased cassava production in Ghana and Nigeria.

FAO and its partners will continue to monitor progress towards the goal of reducing chronic undernourishment by half by 2015. In this era of global abundance, why does the world continue to tolerate the daily hunger and deprivation of more than 800 million people? We must work together, and quickly. I am convinced we will see the day when FAO ceases to publish a report titled The State of Food Insecurity in the World because the world will have lived up to its promise to end hunger.

Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2000
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 2000

SOFI 1999 | Food Insecurity: when people must live with hunger and fear starvation

Three years ago, leaders from 186 countries gathered in Rome and made a solemn commitment – to halve the number of hungry people by the year 2015. Is the world living up to the promise it made at the 1996 World Food Summit?

New estimates for 1995/97 show that around 790 million people in the developing world do not have enough to eat. This is more than the total populations of North America and Europe combined. The “continent” of the hungry includes men, women, and children who may never reach their full physical and mental potential because they do not have enough to eat – many of them may even die because they have been denied the basic human right to food. This state of affairs is unacceptable.

Yes, the number of undernourished people has decreased by 40 million since 1990/92, the period to which the estimates of 830 to 840 million cited at the Summit refer. But we cannot afford to be complacent. A closer look at the data reveals that in the first half of this decade, a group of only 37 countries achieved reductions totaling 100 million. Across the rest of the developing world, the number of hungry people actually increased by almost 60 million.

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 1999
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 1999

The current rate of progress – an average reduction of around 8 million a year – falls squarely within the trajectory of “business as usual.” If the pace is not stepped up, more than 600 million people will still go to sleep hungry in developing countries in 2015. To achieve the Summit goal, a much faster rate of progress is required, averaging reductions of at least 20 million a year in the developing world.

Hunger is often associated with developing countries. While that is true, this report provides statistical evidence that the problem is not limited to developing countries. For the first time, FAO presents aggregate estimates of the number of undernourished in developed countries. The resulting figure, 34 million people, confirms that even developed countries are confronted with the challenge of overcoming food insecurity.
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Although many of these 34 million people live in countries that have been undergoing major political and economic transitions in the 1990s, pockets of hunger are to be found in all parts of the world.

It is my conviction that there is no reason not to have a hunger-free world sometime in the next century. The world already produces enough food to feed the people who inhabit it today. And it could produce more. However, unless deliberate action is taken at all levels, the chances are that hunger and malnutrition will continue in the foreseeable future. But, before effective action can be taken, we need to know who the hungry and vulnerable are, where they live, and why they have not been able to improve their situations.

The numbers are 790 million in developing countries, and 34 million in developed countries, but we must put faces on the numbers. Whether it is the victims of civil conflict or herders who suffer because their pastureland is disappearing, whether it is the urban poor living on national welfare or the geographically isolated ethnic minorities, we cannot forget that they are human beings, with individual needs and aspirations. In poor villages and neighborhoods across the world, the scene is the same: people working from sunrise to sunset dealing with harsh climates, tired earth and the effects of fragile economies, laboring constantly to provide for themselves and their families – striving for little more than enough food to keep themselves alive.

That is why we must focus not only on abstract global numbers but on the faces and places that make up those numbers. In calculations and predictions that use variables of population growth, output rates, declining resource bases, political changes, devastation from diseases or the effects of natural and manmade disasters, we must always remember that we are talking about people – individuals who, given the chance, have the potential to make significant contributions to the world around them. But in order to reach their potential, they need and deserve a life free from hunger.

New technologies allow us to link national information systems and establish global networks, to examine an entire ocean or one drop of water, to punch buttons and create graphs and flow charts that show us instantly and clearly the kind of progress being made. Knowledge not only gives us power, it gives us insight and direction. With the establishment of the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) initiative, we are expanding our ability to gather, analyze and share knowledge that can guide future initiatives to increase access to food for all.

The work of FIVIMS is essential as we enter the new millennium. We must devise and put into action policies and programs to enable governments, international and non-governmental organizations, communities and individuals to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of what should be a birthright for every one of the 6,000 million people on this planet – enough to eat.

As we have seen, the progress being made against hunger in the world is uneven. It is clear that there is no global formula for success. The success must come from specific actions undertaken and goals set at the local, national and regional levels, where individuals will be able to see the impact of their involvement. In the absence of new investment and policy efforts at all levels, current technological and socio-economic trends are likely to continue. The number of undernourished people may continue to decline … but only slowly and only in some regions of the world. Deliberate and targeted measures and new investments are fundamental to improving the trend.

The reduction to 790 million hungry people in developing countries is a beginning. Our stated goal is to reduce that number, at the minimum, to around 400 million by 2015, as well as to reduce by half or more the number of 34 million hungry in developed countries. But as we work towards the goal, we must remain aware that we cannot stop when we reach it. Because, even that number is far too big. Even one hungry person is one too many.

Jacques Diouf
FAO Director-General

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The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 1999
El Estado de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Mundo 1999

THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE | SOFA

Este relatório é uma visão anual abrangente dos tópicos relacionados com o duplo mandato da FAO. Coloca forte ênfase em áreas de desenvolvimento emergentes, como os sistemas agroalimentares e as tecnologias digitais na agricultura.

THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

SOFA 2023 | Revealing the true Cost of Food to transform Agrifood Systems

In the face of escalating global challenges—lack of food availability, food accessibility, and food affordability due to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, economic slowdowns and downturns, worsening poverty, and other overlapping crises—we find ourselves standing at a critical juncture. The choices we make now, the priorities we set, and the solutions we implement will determine the trajectory of our shared future. Consequently, the decisions we make about global agrifood systems must acknowledge these interrelated challenges.

There is increased international consensus that transforming agrifood systems to increase their efficiency, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability is an essential comprehensive design for realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Momentum for change led to the first-ever United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), convened by the UN Secretary-General (UNSG) in September 2021, followed by the UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment (UNFSS+2), hosted by the Italian Government in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in late July 2023. These meetings highlighted strong political will and stakeholder support for innovative solutions and strategies to transform agrifood systems and leverage those changes to deliver progress on all the Sustainable Development Goals.

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2023
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2023

To achieve these goals, including FAO’s vision to transform agrifood systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all, leaving no one behind, it is vital that the impacts of our actions within these systems be transparent. FAO is responding to this essential need by dedicating two consecutive issues of The State of Food and Agriculture—for the first time since this flagship publication was launched in 1947—to uncovering the true impacts, both positive and negative, of global agrifood systems for informed decision-making.

This year’s report introduces true cost accounting (TCA) as an approach to uncovering the hidden impacts of our agrifood systems on the environment, health, and livelihoods, so that agrifood systems actors are better informed and prepared before making decisions.
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There is always concern that if we consider all the hidden costs of producing food, prices will go up, but integrating these costs in the decision-making process, as well as in the incentives faced by producers and consumers, is part of a much larger process of agrifood systems transformation. TCA is about supporting the right investment decisions by countries and the private sector to reduce existing costs instead of perpetuating them.

The 2023 report further highlights the methodological and data challenges that need to be addressed for greater adoption of TCA, especially in low- and lower-middle-income countries. It quantifies, to the extent possible, the hidden costs of national agrifood systems in a consistent and comparable way for 154 countries. These preliminary results cover hidden costs from greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen emissions, blue water use, land-use transitions, and poverty, as well as losses in productivity caused by unhealthy dietary patterns and undernourishment.

The results we present in this report should not be viewed as a definitive assessment but rather as a starting point for stimulating debate and dialogue. Indeed, while these results help us see the big picture of the hidden costs of agrifood systems, action to address these costs will have to be taken at the country level. In this context, the next edition of The State of Food and Agriculture will aim to improve upon this initial preliminary quantification and analysis using country-specific information and input from in-country stakeholders and experts. This can then inform the planning for more in-depth, tailored analyses to guide transformational policy actions and investments in specific countries.

The pressing need to incorporate hidden costs into our decision-making processes, as part of the broader effort to transform the way our agrifood systems function, is underscored by the striking figures that already emerge from this year’s findings, despite their tentative nature and the aim of refinement in 2024. Preliminary results strongly suggest that the global hidden costs of our agrifood systems—despite the exclusion of certain impacts and a considerable degree of uncertainty—exceed USD 10 trillion.

One of the most glaring findings is the disproportionate burden of these hidden costs on low-income countries. Here, hidden costs account for, on average, 27 percent of gross domestic product, primarily due to the impacts of poverty and undernourishment. Compared with, on average, 11 percent in middle-income countries and 8 percent in high-income countries, this reveals a stark economic disparity. Clearly, addressing poverty and undernourishment remains a priority for low-income countries, as these account for about half of all hidden costs quantified in these countries.

Productivity losses from dietary patterns that lead to non-communicable diseases are the most significant contributor to the total hidden costs of agrifood systems and are particularly relevant for high- and upper-middle-income countries. Environmental hidden costs, which constitute more than 20 percent of total quantified hidden costs, correspond to nearly one-third of the value added by agriculture.

Next year’s edition of this report aims to provide case studies with more targeted assessments, linking hidden costs to actions that can be taken to reduce them. These consecutive editions are part of a broader strategy by FAO to integrate TCA into agrifood systems assessments and policy advice. The findings presented in the 2023 report underscore the urgent need for systemic transformation. They also reveal the potential of TCA as a catalyst for transformation—a tool for unveiling these hidden costs, informing policy, and improving the value proposition of agrifood systems.

As we turn the pages of this report and look forward to The State of Food and Agriculture 2024 advancing this work programme, let us remember that the future of our agrifood systems and, indeed, of our planet hinges on our willingness to appreciate all food producers, big or small, to acknowledge these true costs and to understand how we all contribute to them. We all have a stake in acting upon them.

It is my sincere hope that this report will serve as a call to action for all stakeholders—from policymakers and private-sector actors to researchers and consumers—and inspire a collective endeavor to transform our agrifood systems for the betterment of all.

Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2023
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2023

SOFA 2022 | Leveraging automation in Agriculture for transforming Agrifood Systems

This report dives deep into a reality of agriculture: the sector is undergoing profound technological change at an accelerating pace. New technologies, unimaginable just a few years ago, are rapidly emerging. In livestock production, for example, technologies based on electronic tagging of animals – including milking robots and poultry feeding systems – are increasingly adopted in some countries. Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) guidance allows automated crop production, involving the use of autosteer for tractors, fertilizer spreaders, and pesticide sprayers. Even more advanced technologies are now coming onto the market in all sectors. In crop production, autonomous machines such as weeding robots are starting to be commercialized, while uncrewed aerial vehicles (commonly called drones) gather information for both crop management and input application. In aquaculture, automated feeding and monitoring technologies are increasingly adopted. In forestry, machinery for log cutting and transportation is currently a major aim of automation efforts. Many of the most recent technologies facilitate precision agriculture, a management strategy that uses information to optimize input and resource use.

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2022
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2022

Recent technological developments may astound and amaze, inspiring the desire to learn more. However, it is important to remember that technological change is not a new phenomenon and, crucially, not all agrifood systems actors have access to it. FAO has been studying this subject for decades. What we see today is no more than a consolidation point – for now – of a lengthy process of technological change in agriculture that has been accelerating over the last two centuries.

This process has increased productivity, reduced drudgery in farm work, freed up labor for other activities, and ultimately improved livelihoods and human well-being. Machinery and equipment have improved and sometimes taken over the three key steps involved in any agricultural operation: diagnosis, decision-making, and performing. The historical evolution exhibits five technology categories: the introduction of manual tools; the use of animal traction; motorized mechanization since the 1910s; the adoption of digital equipment since the 1980s; and, more recently, the introduction of robotics. What is referred to as automation in this report really begins with motorized mechanization, which has greatly automated the performing component of agricultural operations.
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The more recent digital technologies and robotics allow for the gradual automation also of diagnosis and decision-making. As this report notes, this evolution is ongoing, but not all agricultural producers in all countries are at the same stage.

It is true that there are widespread concerns about the possible negative socioeconomic impacts of labor-saving technological change, in particular job displacement and consequent unemployment. Such fears date back to at least the early nineteenth century. However, when looking back, fears that automation which increases labor productivity will necessarily leave people without jobs on a vast scale are simply not borne out by historical realities. This is because automation in agriculture is part of the process of structural transformation of societies whereby increased agricultural labor productivity gradually releases agricultural workers, allowing them to enter into profitable activities in other sectors such as industry and services. During this transformation, the share of the population employed in agriculture naturally declines, while jobs are created in other sectors. This is generally accompanied by changes within agrifood systems, whereby upstream and downstream sectors evolve, creating new jobs and new entrepreneurial opportunities. For this reason, it is essential to recognize that agriculture is a key part of broader agrifood systems.

The report highlights the potential benefits of agricultural automation that are manifold and able to contribute to the transformation of agrifood systems, making them more efficient, productive, resilient, sustainable, and inclusive. Automation can increase labor productivity and profitability in agriculture. It can improve working conditions for agricultural workers. It can generate new entrepreneurship opportunities in rural areas, which may be particularly attractive for rural youth. It can help reduce food losses and improve product quality and safety. It can also bring about benefits in terms of environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation. Recent solutions involving precision agriculture and the adoption of small-scale equipment – often more suited to local conditions than motorized mechanization using heavy machinery – can improve both environmental sustainability and resilience to climate and other shocks. Thanks to these numerous benefits, agricultural automation can also contribute to achieving several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

However, the risks and problems associated with agricultural automation are also acknowledged in this report. As with any technological change, automation in agriculture implies disruption to agrifood systems. If automation is rapid and not aligned with local socioeconomic and labor market conditions, there can indeed be displacement of labor – the common outcome that must be avoided. In addition, automation may increase demand for highly skilled laborers, while reducing demand for non-skilled workers. If large prosperous agricultural producers have easier access to automation than smaller, poorer producers, automation risks exacerbating inequalities, and this must be avoided at all costs. If not well managed and suited to local conditions, automation, especially mechanization relying on heavy machinery, can jeopardize agricultural sustainability. These risks are real and are recognized and analyzed in this report. Yet, as the report also suggests, saying no to automation is not the way forward. FAO truly believes that without technological progress and increased productivity, there is no possibility of lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. Refusing automation may mean condemning agricultural laborers to a future of perennially low productivity and poor returns for their labor. What matters is how the process of automation is carried out in practice, not whether or not it happens. We must ensure that automation takes place in a way that is inclusive and promotes sustainability.

Throughout this report, FAO shares the concept of responsible technological change to make agricultural automation a success. What does this entail?

First, agricultural automation needs to be part of a process of agricultural transformation that runs in parallel with, facilitates, and is facilitated by broader changes in society and agrifood systems. For this, it is essential that adoption of automation responds to real incentives. Thus, labor-saving technologies can further the process of agricultural transformation if they respond to growing labor scarcity and rising rural wages. On the other hand, if incentives for adoption of automation or specific automation technologies are artificially created, for example, through government subsidies – particularly in contexts where labor is abundant – automation take-up can be highly disruptive with negative labor market and socioeconomic impacts. However, it is also important that government policies do not inhibit automation, as this could lead to condemning agricultural producers and workers to a future of perennially low productivity and competitiveness. This report argues that the appropriate role of government is to create an enabling environment to facilitate adoption of suitable automation solutions, rather than directly incentivize specific solutions in contexts where they may not be appropriate, or inhibit adoption of automation in any way.

For coherence with the SDGs, automation needs to be inclusive. It must offer opportunities for all, from small-scale producers to large commercial farms, as well as marginalized groups such as women, youth, and persons with disabilities. Barriers to adoption need to be overcome, not least for women. Making suitable technical solutions available for all categories of producers involves making technologies scale-neutral, that is, making them suitable for producers of all scales, or accessible to all through institutional mechanisms such as shared services. Building digital skills through education and training is also essential for facilitating adoption and avoiding digital divides based on unequal knowledge and skills.

To enhance sustainability and be truly inclusive and transformative, automation solutions need to be adapted to the local context, in terms not only of the characteristics of the producers but also of local biophysical, topographic, climatic, and socioeconomic conditions. This report is realistic and offers no one-size-fits-all solutions. The most advanced technological solution is not necessarily the most appropriate everywhere and for everybody. As the evidence presented shows, in some situations, simple technologies such as small machinery and even hand-held equipment can lead to substantial benefits for small-scale producers and enable production on hilly terrain. There are even situations where producers may be able to leapfrog directly to more advanced technological solutions. What is essential is that agricultural producers themselves choose the technologies most suited to their needs, while governments create the enabling environment that allows them to do so.

Finally, this report also argues that agricultural automation must contribute to more sustainable and resilient agriculture. In the past, the use of large-scale heavy machinery has often had a negative impact on environmental sustainability. Addressing this requires tailoring mechanization to smaller and lighter machinery. At the same time, digital agriculture and robotics that facilitate precision agriculture offer solutions that are more resource-efficient and more environmentally sustainable. Applied technical and agronomic research can help find solutions that can lead to further progress towards environmental sustainability.

This report looks in detail at these issues, presenting an objective and in-depth examination of agricultural automation, demystifying the ill-founded myths surrounding it, and suggesting ways forward to adopt agricultural automation in different country and local settings. It identifies key areas for policy interventions and investments to ensure that agricultural automation contributes to inclusive and sustainable development.

FAO firmly and strategically believes in technology, innovation, and data, supported by adequate governance, human capital, and institutions, as key cross-cutting and cross-sectional accelerators in all its programmatic interventions to accelerate impact while minimizing trade-offs. No doubt, these accelerators will be catalytic for agricultural transformation in all contexts. It is my hope that this FAO report can contribute in a constructive way to the policy debate in this area of major importance for achieving the SDGs.

Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2022
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2022

SOFA 2021 | Making Agrifood Systems more resilient to shocks and stresses

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had profound impacts on all our lives, and we continue to struggle with it. Border closures and curfews to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus stopped international travel, shut down countless businesses, and left millions of people unemployed. Restrictions on the movement of people and goods, particularly in the initial stages of the pandemic, impeded the flow of inputs to farmers and of their produce to markets. Where harvesting and transport were blocked, huge quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables were left to decay in farmers’ fields. Restrictions have harmed not only agrifood trade, agrifood supply chains, and agrifood markets, but also people’s lives, livelihoods, and nutrition.

After initial disruptions and uncertainty, many supply chains showed a remarkable degree of resilience in absorbing and adapting to the shock caused by the pandemic; however, lack of access to adequate food for millions of people emerged as a huge and persistent problem. Many rural people were unable to travel for seasonal work – an important source of income in poor communities. Immobilized by lockdowns, low-income urban households saw their incomes and spending on food fall sharply.

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2021
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2021

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was not on track to meet the shared commitment to end global hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030, but the pandemic has sent us even further off track. This year’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World estimates that between 720 and 811 million people were affected by hunger in 2020, up to 161 million more than in 2019, with the increase largely propelled by the COVID-19 crisis. Tragically, women and children have often borne the brunt of the crisis. According to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020, the disruption of health services and access to adequate food has added to the toll of under-five and maternal deaths. The United Nations’ Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition suggests that 370 million children have been denied school meals owing to school closures. There is no doubt that the impact of the pandemic on food security and nutrition will be felt for many years.
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Agrifood production and supply chains have historically been vulnerable to shocks – from droughts and floods to armed conflict and food price hikes – and are under growing pressure from longer-term stresses, including the climate crisis and environmental degradation. But the COVID-19 pandemic is exceptional in that it has shown how a shock of global proportions can occur suddenly, spread rapidly, and compromise the food security, nutrition status, and livelihoods of billions of people to an unprecedented degree and over a long period.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left the fragilities of national agrifood systems widely exposed. An obvious reason to address these fragilities is, of course, the unwelcome increase in food insecurity and malnutrition. However, agrifood systems are too large for us to believe that their fragilities, if left unaddressed, will impede only the goal of achieving Zero Hunger by 2030, however crucial this objective may be. The implications go further. Agrifood systems produce 11 billion tonnes of food a year, employing 4 billion people directly or indirectly. The agrifood sector, including forestry and fisheries, also accounts for one-third of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change and occupies 37 percent of the Earth’s land area. Agrifood systems have, therefore, an essential role to play in realizing other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to poverty, resource and energy efficiency, cleaner economies, and healthy aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, among others.

International consensus has grown around the idea that transforming agrifood systems – towards greater efficiency, resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability – is an essential condition for realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Momentum for change led to the first ever United Nations Food Systems Summit in September 2021, which agreed on innovative solutions and strategies to transform agrifood systems and leverage those changes to deliver progress across all the SDGs. The Summit’s call to action focused on five objectives, one of which is building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stresses to ensure the continued functioning of healthy, sustainable agrifood systems.

The theme of this year’s report responds to the United Nations Food Systems Summit’s call to bring forward a series of concrete actions that people from all over the world can take to support the transformation of the world’s agrifood systems. More specifically, the report provides evidence and guidance on actions that can help actors in agrifood systems manage their vulnerability to shocks and stresses, and strengthen the capacity of these systems to support livelihoods and sustainably provide continuous access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to all in the face of disruptions.

To this end, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed a suite of resilience indicators designed to measure the robustness of primary production, the extent of food availability, and the degree of people’s physical and economic access to adequate food in countries worldwide. These indicators can help assess the capacity of national agrifood systems to absorb the impact of any shock, which is a key aspect of resilience. Analysis shows that a country’s primary production sector is more resilient when it produces a diverse mix of food and non-food products and sells them to a wide range of markets, both domestic and international, a configuration mainly seen in higher-income countries or those with a large agrifood base.

In terms of food availability, however, analysis of multiple sourcing pathways for crop, fish, and livestock commodities shows that lower-income countries have a diversity that is comparable to that of larger, higher-income countries.

Another important aspect underscored by this report is that low-income countries face much bigger challenges in ensuring physical access to food through transport networks, key to keeping agrifood supply chains active. Analysis of data from 90 countries shows that if main transport routes were disrupted, many low-income countries, in particular, would have limited capacity to decentralize food distribution or use alternative delivery routes. For nearly half the countries analyzed, the closure of critical network links would increase local transport time by 20 percent or more, thereby increasing costs and food prices for consumers.

Taking an agrifood systems approach, the report also notes that risks associated with economic access to food are even more worrisome. Globally, we already know that around 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet to protect against malnutrition. Since low-income households spend most of their income on food, any significant loss of purchasing power – from food price hikes, crop failures, or loss of income – poses a threat to their food security and nutrition. In fact, this report finds that an additional 1 billion people are at risk as they would not be able to afford a healthy diet if a shock were to reduce their incomes by one-third. The burden of this shock would fall mostly on middle-income countries, but the report also notes that, in the event of such an income shock, proportionately many more people in low-income countries would be unable to afford even an energy-sufficient diet. These risks are unacceptable in a world that produces enough food to feed its entire population.

The report finds that diverse, redundant, and well-connected agrifood supply chains are needed to increase resilience, as they provide multiple pathways for producing, sourcing, and distributing food. However, some actors in these agrifood supply chains are more vulnerable than others. The vulnerability of small and medium agrifood enterprises (SMAEs) is critical, as well as the fact that the resilience capacity of rural households – especially those involved in small-scale agricultural production – is increasingly put to the test in the face of adverse climatic events and depletion of natural resources.

Based on the evidence of this report, FAO is in a strong position to recommend that governments make resilience in agrifood systems a strategic part of national and global responses to ongoing and future challenges. A guiding principle is diversity – input sources, production mixes, output markets, and supply chains – because diversity creates multiple pathways for absorbing shocks. Connectivity multiplies benefits: well-connected agrifood networks overcome disruptions faster by shifting sources of supply and channels for transport, marketing, inputs, and labor.

Governments should encourage better coordination and organization of SMAEs within agrifood supply chains through, for example, forming consortia, which increase their scale, visibility, and influence. Similarly, small-scale food producers can stay competitive and resilient by integrating into supply chains through producer associations and cooperatives, and by adopting resource-conserving practices. Social protection programs may be needed to improve rural households’ resilience in the event of shocks. Policies should also address issues beyond agrifood systems, including the need for better health and education services, gender equality and women’s participation, and must recognize agrifood’s role as a steward of the natural environment.

FAO stands firmly committed to taking advantage of the opportunity offered by events such as the United Nations Food Systems Summit and others to move from commitments to action in order to transform agrifood systems to make them more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all, leaving no one behind. This report offers evidence and guidance to take concrete steps in this important direction.

Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2021
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2021

SOFA 2020 | Overcoming Water challenges in Agriculture

Our very existence depends on water – water to drink and water to grow food. Agriculture relies on freshwater from rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Rainfed agriculture and much of livestock production depend on water from limited rainfall. Moreover, water-related ecosystems also sustain livelihoods, food security, and nutrition by supporting inland fisheries and aquaculture. Supplies of uncontaminated freshwater are needed for safe drinking water and to ensure hygiene and food safety standards to guarantee human health. In addition, water has numerous other uses and supports other human activities.

Against this backdrop, it is clear that water underpins many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 6, in particular, seeks to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Unfortunately, this report shows that achieving this objective by 2030 will be a challenge. The need to “produce more with less” is underscored by the fact that, with a growing population, the freshwater resources available per person have declined by more than 20 percent in the last two decades. As demand rises, freshwater becomes increasingly scarce, competition for it intensifies, and excessive water withdrawals threaten water-related ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide.

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2020
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2020

Agriculture has an important role to play on the path to sustainability, as irrigated agriculture accounts for more than 70 percent of global water withdrawals, and globally, 41 percent of withdrawals are not compatible with sustaining ecosystem services. Rainfed agriculture is called on to complement irrigation from scarce freshwater resources, yet rainwater also arrives in finite amounts. In addition, climate change is already seriously disrupting rainfall patterns. Increased drought frequency and consequent water shortages in rainfed agriculture represent significant risks to livelihoods and food security, particularly for the most vulnerable populations in the least developed parts of the world.

We must take very seriously both water scarcity (the imbalance between supply and demand for freshwater resources) and water shortages
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(reflected in inadequate rainfall patterns), for they are now the reality we all live with. Thanks to work by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), we can assess how many people and how much land are experiencing water scarcity and water shortages. This report estimates that 1.2 billion people live in agricultural areas experiencing very high levels of water stress (affecting irrigated areas) or very high drought frequency (affecting rainfed cropland and pastureland). Of these, 520 million live in rural areas, while 660 million live in small urban centers surrounded by agricultural land. If we also include areas that experience high (in addition to very high) levels of water stress and drought frequency, the overall number increases to 3.2 billion, of whom 1.4 billion live in rural areas. In relative terms, about 11 percent of total cropland and 14 percent of pastureland experience recurring droughts, while more than 60 percent of irrigated cropland is highly water-stressed. These first estimates for SDG Indicator 6.4.2 on water stress, and the evidence of persistent water shortages in rainfed agriculture, underscore the need for urgent action to ensure that water is managed sustainably. In the absence of such action, the rising demand for water and the increasing effects of climate change risk worsening the situation.

Beyond SDG 6, addressing water shortages and scarcity is essential for many other goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), not least that of achieving Zero Hunger. The world still has ten years to achieve these objectives, but we can only succeed if we make better and more productive use of our limited water resources, both freshwater and rainwater. Agriculture is central to this challenge, not only because it is seriously affected by water constraints, but because it is the world’s largest water user. This means that the way agriculture uses freshwater is crucial to ensuring availability for other activities and preserving water-related ecosystems. As the world aims to shift to healthy diets – often composed of relatively water-intensive foods, such as legumes, nuts, poultry, and dairy products – the sustainable use of water resources will be ever more crucial. Rainfed agriculture provides the largest share of global food production. However, for it to continue to do so, we must improve how we manage water resources from limited rainfall.

With this report, FAO is sending a strong message: water shortages and scarcity in agriculture must be addressed immediately and boldly if our pledge to achieve the SDGs is to be taken seriously. Global food security and nutrition are at stake. Water shortages and scarcity jeopardize the environment that is necessary to enable and ensure access to food for millions of people who are hungry in many parts of the world and to reduce the cost of nutritious food so as to ensure billions of people will be able to afford a healthy diet. Growing competition for water – including among sectors, among users, and sometimes among countries – also leads to serious challenges. In the absence of appropriate governance, the increased competition can exacerbate already severe inequalities in access to water. Again, those most at risk are the poorest and most vulnerable groups, such as small-scale farmers and women. Communities and individuals reliant on water-related ecosystems, such as inland fisherfolk, also risk losing out as they are frequently neglected. In the worst case, increased competition can lead to conflicts at all levels – from local to international – and among different groups.

For this reason, a key emphasis of this report is on improved water governance, which aims at ensuring the most productive use of limited water resources while safeguarding water-related ecosystem services and ensuring equitable access for all. While water governance in agriculture has focused on irrigation, this report broadens the scope to cover the challenges in rainfed agriculture, including pastoral systems. It further recognizes the importance of restoring and maintaining environmental flows and ensuring environmental services. It places water accounting and auditing at the center of any program to overcome water constraints. The report takes the view that water accounting and auditing are best designed and implemented as mutually supportive processes. By connecting people and their relationship with water resources to the broader water balance, this report also highlights the potential of water tenure in addressing water constraints and complementing auditing and accounting.

With the importance of governance as the underlying theme, the report lays out suggested courses of action at three different levels: (i) technical and management; (ii) institutional and legal; and (iii) broader policy. At the technical and management level, a key challenge is to unlock the potential of rainfed agriculture through improved water management. This involves either better conservation of water in soils or the adoption of rainwater harvesting techniques. The productivity of irrigated systems can be significantly enhanced through investments in new irrigation systems or the rehabilitation and modernization of existing ones. In all instances, improved water management practices are most effective when combined with improved agricultural practices, such as the use of drought-tolerant varieties. Options also exist in livestock production to improve water productivity, such as through improved grazing and animal health. However, actions at the farm level must be part of a broader landscape-level approach to account for effects on water balances in catchments and river basins.

This calls for effective institutional and legal frameworks that, once adapted to each specific context, will enable improved water governance and, consequently, innovative management strategies. The starting point for any effective water management and governance strategy should be water accounting and auditing. Subsequently, effective institutions and regulations that promote coordination among actors are required to manage competing demands for water, ensure equitable access, and safeguard ecosystems. A cornerstone of this approach is secure water and land tenure, which – also in combination with water trading and pricing mechanisms – can establish incentives for efficient water use. Often, community-based water users associations can contribute to improved water management. However, solutions must be adapted to local conditions and developed by or with the stakeholders concerned.

Finally, at the level of the broader policy environment, policy coherence and coordination are crucial. This applies across and within sectors and locations. Coherent strategies are needed across rainfed and irrigated cropland, livestock production systems, forestry, and inland fisheries and aquaculture. Incentives represent a key element of policy coherence and should promote water productivity and ecosystem protection. However, subsidies on inputs, energy, and production may promote inefficiencies and unsustainable use of water; for example, in the form of excessive groundwater abstraction. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to addressing water shortages and scarcity. Different countries – and even different regions within countries – have different characteristics and face different challenges. Therefore, the solutions proposed by the report are consistent with the territorial approaches adopted by FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative to target problems and challenges at the territorial subnational level. The report proposes potential policy priorities in different types of production that can be tailored, for both irrigated and rainfed agriculture, using geospatial data available through FAO.

To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, who was also a distinguished scientist, let us not wait until the well is dry to understand the worth of water. This report highlights the urgency of the problem at hand, and the important role that the agriculture sector must play to address growing water shortages and scarcity. I invite all stakeholders to read the report and, from their perspective, take from it appropriate options for addressing water-related challenges and, more importantly, implement them so as to improve food security and nutrition, and environmental sustainability, in the spirit of the 2030 Agenda.

Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2020
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2020

SOFA 2019 | Moving forward on Food Loss and Waste Reduction

I am heartened to see that the world is paying more attention to the issue of food loss and waste and is calling for more decisive action to address it. The growing awareness and increase in calls for action are rooted in the strong negative moral connotations associated with food loss and waste. These are partly based on the fact that losing food implies unnecessary pressure on the environment and the natural resources that have been used to produce it in the first place. It essentially means that land and water resources have been wasted, pollution created, and greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted to no purpose. I also frequently wonder how we can allow food to be thrown away when more than 820 million people in the world continue to go hungry every day.

International attention on the issue of food loss and waste is firmly reflected in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Specifically, Target 12.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which embody this agenda, calls for the halving by 2030 of per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and the reduction of food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2019
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2019

Many countries are already taking action to reduce food loss and waste, but the challenges ahead remain significant and we need to step up efforts. Furthermore, as this report argues, efforts to meet SDG Target 12.3 could contribute to meeting other SDG targets, not least that of achieving Zero Hunger, in line with the integrated nature of the 2030 Agenda.

However, as we strive to make progress towards reducing food loss and waste, we can only be truly effective if our efforts are informed by a solid understanding of the problem. Three dimensions need to be considered. Firstly, we need to know – as accurately as possible – how much food is lost and wasted, as well as where and why. Secondly, we need to be clear about our underlying reasons or objectives for reducing food loss and waste – be they related to food security or the environment. Thirdly, we need to understand how food loss and waste, as well as the measures to reduce it, affect the objectives being pursued.
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This report sheds light on these three dimensions in order to help design more informed and better policies for food loss and waste reduction.

Concerning the first dimension, the surprising fact is how little we really know about how much food is lost or wasted, and where and why this happens. A broad estimate, prepared for FAO in 2011, suggested that around a third of the world’s food was lost or wasted every year. This estimate is still widely cited due to a lack of information in this field, but it can only be considered as very rough. It is therefore in the process of being replaced by two indices, thanks to efforts by FAO and UN Environment to estimate more carefully and more precisely how much food is lost in production or in the supply chain before it reaches the retail level (through the Food Loss Index) or is subsequently wasted by consumers or retailers (through the Food Waste Index). Initial estimates made by FAO for the Food Loss Index, which I am pleased to release through this report, tell us that globally around 14 percent of the world’s food is lost from production before reaching the retail level. Estimates for the Food Waste Index are under preparation by UN Environment and will complement the Food Loss Index to provide a better understanding of how much food is lost or wasted in the world. These indices will allow us to monitor progress towards SDG Target 12.3 over time, starting from a more solid baseline.

However, to intervene effectively we also need to know where in the food supply chain losses and waste are concentrated and the reasons why they occur. Evidence presented in this report shows that losses and waste tend to be higher for some specific commodity groups, although they can occur at all stages of the food supply chain to different degrees. However, what really struck me is the vast range in terms of percentages of food loss and waste for the same commodities and the same stages in the supply chain both within and across countries. This suggests that there is considerable potential to reduce food loss and waste where percentage losses are higher than in other places. However, it also shows that we cannot generalize about the occurrence of food loss and waste across food supply chains but must, on the contrary, identify critical loss points in specific supply chains as a crucial step in taking appropriate countermeasures.

Regarding the second dimension, although the SDGs include the reduction of food loss and waste as a target in its own right, we need to be clear about why we are pursuing it – or what is the underlying objective. Individual actors, from farmers and fishers right up to consumers, may have a private interest in reducing food loss or waste to increase their profits or income, their personal well-being or that of their families. However, this private incentive is not always strong since reducing food loss and waste may require investing money or time which, in the perception of these actors, could outweigh the benefits. There may also be barriers that prevent private actors from making these investments, e.g., credit constraints or a lack of information about options for reducing food loss and waste. On the other hand, there may be a stronger public interest in reducing food loss and waste because it contributes to other public objectives. This calls for public interventions in the form of investments or policies that create incentives for private actors to reduce food loss and waste or remove the barriers that prevent them from doing so. The broad public objectives that this report considers are twofold: improving the food security situation of vulnerable groups and reducing the environmental footprint associated with food that is lost or wasted.

A key argument in this report is that the linkages between food loss and waste, on the one hand, and food security and environmental impacts, on the other, are complex and need to be thoroughly understood. Positive outcomes from reducing food loss and waste are far from guaranteed, and the impacts will differ according to where food loss and waste is reduced. It is exactly for this reason that policymakers need to be clear about the objectives they choose to pursue. Focusing on one objective will indeed have implications for where food loss and waste reductions can be most effective.

For instance, if the objective is to improve food security, reducing on-farm losses – particularly on small farms in low-income countries with high levels of food insecurity – is likely to have strong positive impacts. It may directly improve food security in the affected farm households and may also have positive effects in local areas, and even beyond, if more food becomes available. Reducing food loss and waste further along the food supply chain may improve food security for consumers, but farmers may actually be negatively affected if demand for their produce declines. On the other hand, while reducing consumer food waste in high-income countries with low levels of food insecurity may have some impact on vulnerable people locally through food collection and redistribution initiatives, the impact on the food insecure in distant low-income countries is likely to be negligible.

If the objectives for reducing food loss and waste are essentially environmental, the situation changes. In the case of GHGs, these accumulate throughout the supply chain. Therefore, cutting waste by consumers will have the biggest impact because food wasted at this stage represents a larger amount of embedded GHG emissions. In the case of land and water, the environmental footprint is tied mainly to the primary production phase. Therefore, reducing food loss and waste at any stage of the food supply chain can contribute to reducing overall land and water use at the global level. However, if you want to address local land and water scarcity, measures to reduce food loss are likely to be more effective if they occur at the farm level or at stages in the supply chain close to the farm level.

I invite you to read this report carefully as it examines the complex ways in which food loss and waste – and the measures taken to address it – affect food security and the environment. The report does not claim to have all the answers, particularly as it acknowledges the important information gaps that stand in the way of a comprehensive analysis. Among other things, the report attempts to highlight precisely where there is a need for a more thorough understanding of the issues, both through more and better data and improved and expanded analysis. It is my hope that it can make a contribution to the debate on how to address the problem of food loss and waste most effectively and in ways that actually make a difference in terms of improved food security and environmental sustainability, following the spirit of the 2030 Agenda.

Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2019
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2019

SOFA 2018 | Migration, Agriculture and Rural Development

Few issues attract as much attention or are subject to as much controversy in international and domestic policy debates today as migration. Growing concerns over the increasingly large numbers of migrants and refugees moving across borders have directed most of this attention towards international migration, which has made it to the top of the international policy agenda. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it embraces clearly recognize the importance of migration, the challenges it poses, and the opportunities it provides. SDG Target 10.7 calls for facilitating orderly, safe, and responsible migration. It is significant that this call is placed within the context of SDG 10, which aims at reducing inequality within and among countries. This constitutes a clear recognition of the positive side of migration and the role it can play in reducing inequalities. Furthermore, in September 2016 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, taking another step forward by launching the process of developing two Global Compacts for safe, orderly, and regular migration and on refugees, respectively.

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2018
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2018

Unfortunately, much of the debate on migration focuses on its negative sides. The complexity of the phenomenon tends to be overlooked, and the opportunities presented are not fully recognized. In his report “Making Migration Work for All,” the United Nations Secretary-General acknowledges the widespread existence of “xenophobic political narratives about migration” and calls for a respectful and realistic debate on migration. He also draws attention to the role of migration as “an engine of economic growth, innovation, and sustainable development.” The basic challenge, according to the UN Secretary-General, is to maximize the benefits of migration while ensuring that it is never an act of desperation.

In order to arrive at a more realistic and dispassionate debate on the issue, there is a need to truly understand migration: what it is, what its magnitude is, what drives it, and what the impacts are. Only through such an enhanced understanding will we be able to put in place the best policy responses to the challenges it poses and the opportunities it presents.
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This report aims to contribute to just such an outcome on both internal and international migration, from an FAO perspective.

The first thing to understand is the diverse nature of the migration experience. Migration is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that ranges from voluntary migration – whereby people choose to move in search of better opportunities – to forced migration – where they move to escape life-threatening situations caused by conflicts or disasters. The two have different drivers and different impacts and call for – at least partly – different responses. In between are situations where choice and coercion contribute to different degrees to people’s decision to move. This typically applies to slow-onset processes such as the incremental impacts of climate change, where people at some point come to the conclusion that moving is the best available option.

Furthermore, I have noted that most of the attention is on international migration, but this report highlights that this is only part of a much bigger picture that also includes migration within countries, and that the latter is much larger than the former. International migration is often preceded by internal migration, for example through a move from a rural area to a city. Another fact, which may come as a surprise to many, is that migration between developing countries is just as important in terms of magnitude as migration from developing to developed countries. A lot of people may also be surprised to learn that the vast majority of international refugees – around 85 percent – are hosted by developing countries.

The key focus of this report is rural migration, which constitutes a considerable portion of both internal and international migration flows. By rural migration, we mean migration from, to, and between rural areas, whether the move occurs within a country or involves crossing a border. In many countries, especially those at less advanced levels of development and that still have large rural populations, migration between rural areas exceeds rural–urban migration. What is more, a large number of international refugees – at least 30 percent at the global level and more than 80 percent in sub-Saharan Africa – are found in rural areas of their host countries. Understanding rural migration – its magnitude, characteristics, drivers, and impacts – must therefore feature prominently when addressing development.

Rural migration is closely linked not only with agriculture and rural development but also with the overall development of societies. It is a historically important phenomenon that has contributed to the transformation of societies from essentially rural to more urbanized. It has accompanied the gradual process whereby labour is transferred from agriculture to more productive sectors in manufacturing and services that are often located in urban areas, thus contributing to rising incomes and economic, social, and human development. The process of people moving out of rural areas, either to cities or to other countries, continues in many societies today. In many high-income countries, the process has reached the point where agriculture and rural areas are economically viable only to the extent that immigrant labour is available.

Clearly, we must recognize that rural migration is a phenomenon that presents both opportunities and challenges, benefits as well as costs, for migrants themselves and for societies in general. For migrants, migration can mean higher incomes, access to better social services, and improved livelihoods. It can mean improved education and nutrition for their children. It can also have beneficial effects on the families and households of migrants who have remained behind in rural areas, for example through remittances, and can help them diversify their sources of income and improve their conditions. Migration can contribute to rising incomes and the overall economic and social development of societies through new productive resources, skills, and ideas. Unfortunately, these opportunities are often not available for the poorest sectors of the population, who may not have the means to face the high cost of migrating.

We cannot ignore the challenges and costs associated with migration. For individuals, these costs can be high at the economic, social, and personal levels. It can be disruptive for families and for communities of origin, not least when it leads to the loss of often the most dynamic part of the workforce, since it is generally the younger and better educated who migrate. The balance between the benefits and the costs is not always positive for those who move or for those who are left behind.

Finally, we must not ignore that too many people – refugees and the internally displaced – move not because they choose to, but because they have no choice. Increasing numbers of refugees and internally displaced people constitute the most dramatic dimension of migration and call for determined efforts by the international community to address the causes of this displacement, to build resilience among rural people threatened by disasters and conflicts, and to support host countries and communities in coping with the sometimes vast influx of people.

Given the complexity of migration, the appropriate policy responses are difficult to identify or put in place. The drivers, impacts, costs, and benefits of migration are very different and dependent on context. Policy challenges relating to rural migration vary greatly between countries. Some are destination countries for international migration, others are at the origin of international migration flows, some are transit countries, and many are two or three of these at the same time. Some countries still have large rural populations, constituting a potential source of large flows of rural outmigration, while others have already seen major rural outmigration and are now largely urbanized. Some countries with large or growing rural populations – particularly youth – have the development momentum necessary to generate employment opportunities; others, mired in low levels and slow progress of development, face major difficulties addressing these demographic pressures and providing opportunities for young people in rural areas. Countries in protracted crisis face enormous challenges due to the displacement of people and the undermining of livelihoods, not to mention the physical threat to lives and assets, while others have to cope with sometimes massive inflows of refugees and displaced populations. All these countries face different challenges associated with migration and will have different policy priorities when trying to address them.

Beyond the case of forced migration linked to crisis situations, it is important not to consider migration per se as a problem that requires a solution. As such, policies should not aim to either stem or promote migration. Rather the objective must be to make migration a choice, not a necessity, and to maximize the positive impacts while minimizing the negative ones. This means that in many situations it makes sense to facilitate migration and help prospective migrants overcome the constraints they might face, thus allowing them to take advantage of the opportunities that migration offers. At the same time, it also means providing attractive alternative opportunities to prospective rural migrants, not least by promoting development in rural areas or in their proximity. In this context, a key role can be played by the territorial development approach advocated in the 2017 edition of this publication, namely by improving infrastructure and services in small cities and towns and the surrounding rural areas, creating better links between them and exploiting the potential that agriculture and agroindustry offer for local and overall development.

When FAO published “The State of Food and Agriculture” for the first time in 1947, the focus was on reconstructing the global food system after years of world war. Since then, living conditions around the world have improved dramatically, not least thanks to the increased circulation of goods, people, and ideas. Looking back, I cannot help but think that we are at a critical juncture in history where we risk losing sight of how far we have come. Yet much remains to be done to eliminate poverty and hunger in the world. Migration was – and will continue to be – part and parcel of the broader development process. My hope is that this report can help to better understand how the challenges associated with rural migration can be turned into opportunities and the benefits it offers maximized, thereby contributing to eradicating poverty and hunger.

José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2018
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2018

SOFA 2017 | Leveraging Food Systems for Inclusive Rural Transformation

In adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development two years ago, the international community committed itself to eradicating hunger and poverty and achieving other important goals, including making agriculture sustainable, securing healthy lives and decent work for all, reducing inequality, and making economic growth inclusive. With just 13 years remaining before the 2030 deadline, concerted action is needed now if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be reached.

There could be no clearer wake-up call than FAO’s new estimate that the number of chronically undernourished people in the world stands at 815 million. Most of the hungry live in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, many of which have yet to make the necessary headway towards the structural transformation of their economies. Successful transformations in other developing countries were driven by agricultural productivity growth, leading to a shift of people and resources from agriculture towards manufacturing, industry, and services, massive increases in per capita income, and steep reductions in poverty and hunger.

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2017
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2017

Countries lagging behind in this transformation process are mainly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Most have in common economies with large shares of employment in agriculture, widespread hunger and malnutrition, and high levels of poverty.

According to the latest estimates, some 1.75 billion people in low-income and lower-middle-income countries survive on less than US$3.10 a day, and more than 580 million are chronically undernourished. The prospects for eradicating hunger and poverty in these countries are overshadowed by the low productivity of subsistence agriculture, limited scope for industrialization and – above all – by rapid rates of population growth and explosive urbanization. Between 2015 and 2030, their total population is expected to grow by 25 percent, from 3.5 billion to almost 4.5 billion. Their urban populations will grow at double that pace, from 1.3 billion to 2 billion. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people aged 15–24 years is expected to increase by more than 90 million by 2030, and most will be in rural areas.
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Young rural people faced with the prospect of a life of grinding poverty may see few other alternatives than to migrate, at the risk of becoming only marginally better off as they may outnumber available jobs in urban settings.

The overarching conclusion of this report is that fulfilling the 2030 Agenda depends crucially on progress in rural areas, which is where most of the poor and hungry live. It presents evidence to show that, since the 1990s, rural transformations in many countries have led to an increase of more than 750 million in the number of rural people living above the poverty line. To achieve the same results in the countries that have been left behind, the report outlines a strategy that would leverage the enormous untapped potential of food systems to drive agro-industrial development, boost small-scale farmers’ productivity and incomes, and create off-farm employment in expanding segments of food supply and value chains. This inclusive rural transformation would contribute to the eradication of rural poverty, while at the same time helping end poverty and malnutrition in urban areas.

A major force behind inclusive rural transformation will be the growing demand coming from urban food markets, which consume up to 70 percent of the food supply even in countries with large rural populations. Thanks to higher incomes, urban consumers are making significant changes in their diets, away from staples and towards higher-value fish, meat, eggs, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, and more processed foods in general. The value of urban food markets in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to grow from US$150 billion to US$500 billion between 2010 and 2030. Urbanization thus provides a golden opportunity for agriculture. However, it also presents challenges for millions of small-scale family farmers. More profitable markets can lead to the concentration of food production in large commercial farms, to value chains dominated by large processors and retailers, and to the exclusion of smallholders. To ensure that small-scale producers participate fully in meeting urban food demand, policy measures are needed that reduce the barriers limiting their access to inputs, foster the adoption of environmentally sustainable approaches and technologies, increase access to credit and markets, facilitate farm mechanization, revitalize agricultural extension systems, strengthen land tenure rights, ensure equity in supply contracts, and strengthen small-scale producer organizations. No amount of urban demand alone will improve production and market conditions for small-scale farming. Supportive public policies and investment are a key pillar of inclusive rural transformation.

The second pillar is the development of agro-industry and the infrastructure needed to connect rural areas and urban markets. In the coming years, many small-scale farmers are likely to leave agriculture, and most will be unable to find decent employment in largely low-productivity rural economies. A dynamic agro-industrial sector and growth of services in rural areas would create jobs in local economies, especially for women and youth, improving incomes and supporting overall gains in nutrition, health, and food security. Agro-industry is already an important sector in many agriculture-based economies. In sub-Saharan Africa, food and beverage processing represents between 30 percent and 50 percent of total manufacturing value added in most countries, and in some more than 80 percent. However, the growth of agro-industry is often held back by the lack of essential infrastructure – from rural roads and electrical power grids to storage and refrigerated transportation. In many low-income countries, such constraints are exacerbated by a lack of public- and private-sector investment.

The third pillar of inclusive rural transformation is a territorial focus in rural development planning, designed to strengthen the physical, economic, social, and political connections between small urban centers and their surrounding rural areas. In the developing world, about half of the total urban population, or almost 1.5 billion people, live in cities and towns of 500,000 inhabitants or fewer. Too often ignored by policymakers and planners, territorial networks of small cities and towns are important reference points for rural people – the places where they buy their seed, send their children to school, and access medical care and other services. Recent research has shown how the development of rural economies is often more rapid, and usually more inclusive, when integrated with that of these smaller urban areas. In the agroterritorial development approach described in this report, links between small cities and towns and their rural “catchment areas” are strengthened through infrastructure works and policies that connect producers, agro-industrial processors and ancillary services, and other downstream segments of food value chains, including local circuits of food production and consumption. Examples of the approach include agro-corridors, in which lines of transportation, sometimes stretching for hundreds of kilometers, connect production areas to small urban hubs, and agroclusters, which link food producers, processors and institutions in networks to address common challenges. Policymakers are urged to recognize the catalytic role of small cities and towns in mediating the rural–urban nexus and providing smallholder farmers with greater opportunities to market their produce and share in the benefits of economic growth. Small cities and towns can also serve as hubs for a thriving services sector, which would drive broad-based economic growth in rural areas and structural transformation of the economy as a whole.

FAO has published The State of Food and Agriculture reports annually since 1947. Advances in agriculture since then have achieved a quantum leap in food production, bolstered world food security, and supported the structural transformations that have brought prosperity to a large part of the world population. However, with an estimated 815 million people worldwide still suffering from chronic hunger, and millions more living in poverty, much more remains to be done. Unless economic growth is made more inclusive, the global goals of ending poverty and achieving zero hunger by 2030 will not be reached. The international community must work together now to ensure that those “left behind” take their rightful place in a world serving people, planet, prosperity, partnerships, and peace.

José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2017
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2017

SOFA 2016 | Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Following last year’s historic Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – marking a path towards a more sustainable future – 2016 is about putting commitments into action. The rapid change in the world’s climate is translating into more extreme and frequent weather events, heat waves, droughts, and sea-level rise.

The impacts of climate change on agriculture and the implications for food security are already alarming – they are the subjects of this report. A major finding is that there is an urgent need to support smallholders in adapting to climate change. Farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, and community foresters depend on activities that are intimately and inextricably linked to climate – and these groups are also the most vulnerable to climate change. They will require far greater access to technologies, markets, information, and credit for investment to adjust their production systems and practices to climate change.

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2016
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2016

Unless action is taken now to make agriculture more sustainable, productive, and resilient, climate change impacts will seriously compromise food production in countries and regions that are already highly food-insecure. These impacts will jeopardize progress towards the key Sustainable Development Goals of ending hunger and poverty by 2030; beyond 2030, their increasingly negative impacts on agriculture will be widespread.

Through its impacts on agriculture, livelihoods, and infrastructure, climate change threatens all dimensions of food security. It will expose both urban and rural poor to higher and more volatile food prices. It will also affect food availability by reducing the productivity of crops, livestock, and fisheries, and hinder access to food by disrupting the livelihoods of millions of rural people who depend on agriculture for their incomes. Hunger, poverty, and climate change need to be tackled together. This is, not least, a moral imperative as those who are now suffering most have contributed least to the changing climate.
Leia MAIS

The report describes ways of adapting smallholder production to climate change and making the livelihoods of rural populations more resilient. Diversification and better integration of food production systems into complex ecological processes create synergies with the natural habitat instead of depleting natural resources. Agroecology and sustainable intensification are examples of approaches that improve yields and build resilience through practices such as green manuring, nitrogen-fixing cover crops, sustainable soil management, and integration with agroforestry and animal production.

More resilient agriculture sectors and intelligent investments in smallholder farmers can deliver transformative change and enhance the prospects and incomes of the world’s poorest while buffering them against the impacts of climate change. This report shows how the benefits of adaptation outweigh the costs of inaction by very wide margins. For this transformation towards sustainable and more equitable agriculture, access to adequate extension advice and markets must improve, while insecurity of tenure, high transaction costs, and lower resource endowments, especially among rural women, are barriers that will need to be overcome.

Livelihood diversification can also help rural households manage climate risks by combining on-farm activities with seasonal work in agriculture and other sectors. In all cases, social protection programs will need to play an important role – in helping smallholders better manage risk, reducing vulnerability to food price volatility, and enhancing the employment prospects of rural people who leave the land.

In order to keep the increase in global temperature below the crucial ceiling of 2 °C, emissions will have to be reduced by as much as 70 percent by 2050. Keeping climate change within manageable levels can only be achieved with the contribution of the agriculture sectors. They now account for at least one-fifth of total emissions, mainly from the conversion of forests to farmland as well as from livestock and crop production. The challenge is to reduce those emissions while meeting unprecedented demand for food.

The agriculture sectors can substantially contribute to balancing the global carbon cycle. Similarly, in the forestry sector, avoiding deforestation, increasing the area under forest, and adopting sustained-yield management in timber production can bind large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Soils are pivotal in regulating emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Appropriate land use and soil management lead to improved soil quality and fertility and can help mitigate the rise of atmospheric CO2.

It is essential that national commitments – the country pledges that form the basis of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change – turn into action. The Conference of the Parties that will be held in November 2016 in Morocco will have a clear focus on implementation in the agriculture sectors. This report identifies strategies, financing opportunities, and data and information needs, and describes transformative policies and institutions that can overcome barriers to implementation. As countries revise and, hopefully, ramp up their national plans, success in implementing their commitments – particularly in the agriculture sectors – will be vital to creating a virtuous circle of higher ambition.

Climate change is a cornerstone of the work undertaken by FAO. To assist its Members, we have invested in areas that promote food security hand in hand with climate change adaptation and mitigation. FAO is helping to reorient food and agricultural systems in countries most exposed to climate risks, with a clear focus on supporting smallholder farmers.

FAO works in all its areas of expertise, pursuing new models of sustainable, inclusive agriculture. Through the Global Soil Partnership, FAO promotes investment to minimize soil degradation and restore productivity in regions where people are most vulnerable, thus stabilizing global stores of soil organic matter.

We participate in the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock and have launched a program to reduce enteric emissions of methane from ruminants using measures suited to local farming systems. In the fisheries sector, our Blue Growth Initiative is integrating fisheries and sustainable environmental management, while a joint program with the European Union aims at protecting carbon-rich forests. We provide guidance on including genetic diversity in national climate change adaptation planning and have joined forces with the United Nations Development Programme to support countries as they integrate agriculture in adaptation plans and budgeting processes. FAO also helps link developing countries to sources of climate financing.

The international community needs to address climate change today, enabling agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to adopt climate-friendly practices. This will determine whether humanity succeeds in eradicating hunger and poverty by 2030 and producing food for all. “Business as usual” is not an option. Agriculture has always been the interface between natural resources and human activity. Today it holds the key to solving the two greatest challenges facing humanity: eradicating poverty and maintaining the stable climatic corridor in which civilization can thrive.

José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General

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The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2016
El Estado Mundial de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (SOFA) 2016

ACERVO FAO

Publicações da FAO(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations / Organização das Nações Unidas para Alimentação e Agricultura)relacionadas às questões de segurança alimentar e ao combate à fome.

Conteúdo do Acervo FAO

THE STATE OF FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN THE WORLD | SOFI

THE STATE OF FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN THE WORLD | SOFI PÓS-2017

SOFI 2023 | Urbanization, Agrifood Systems, Transformation and Healthy Diets across the Rural-Urban continuum

SOFI 2022 | Repourposing Food and Agricultural Policies to make Healthy Diets more affordable

SOFI 2021 | Transforming Food Systems for Food Security, improved Nutrition and affordable Healthy Diets for all

SOFI 2020 | Transforming Food Systems for affordable Healthy Diets

SOFI 2019 | Safeguarding against economic slowdowns and downturns

SOFI 2017 | Building resilience for Peace and Food Security

THE STATE OF FOOD INSECURITY IN THE WORLD | SOFI 1999 - 2015

SOFI 2015 | Meeting the 2015 international hunger targets: taking stock of uneven progress

SOFI 2014 | Strengthening the enabling environment for Food Security and Nutrition

SOFI 2013 | The multiple dimensions of Food Security

SOFI 2012 | Economic growth is necessary but not suffcient to accelerate reduction of hunger and malnutrition

SOFI 2011 | How does international price volatility affect domestic economies and Food Security?

SOFI 2010 | Addressing Food Insecurity in protracted crises

SOFI 2009 | Economic crises – impacts and lessons learned

SOFI 2008 | High food prices and food security – threats and opportunities

SOFI 2006 | Eradicating world hunger– taking stock ten years after the World Food Summit

SOFI 2005 | Eradicating world hunger – key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals

SOFI 2004 | Monitoring progress towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals

SOFI 2001 | Food Insecurity: when people must live with hunger and fear starvation

SOFI 2000 | Food Insecurity: when people must live with hunger and fear starvation

SOFI 1999 | Food Insecurity: when people must live with hunger and fear starvation

THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE | SOFA

THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

SOFA 2023 | Revealing the true Cost of Food to transform Agrifood Systems

SOFA 2022 | Leveraging automation in Agriculture for transforming Agrifood Systems

SOFA 2021 | Making Agrifood Systems more resilient to shocks and stresses

SOFA 2020 | Overcoming Water challenges in Agriculture

SOFA 2019 | Moving forward on Food Loss and Waste Reduction

SOFA 2018 | Migration, Agriculture and Rural Development

SOFA 2017 | Leveraging Food Systems for Inclusive Rural Transformation

SOFA 2016 | Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Publicações da FAO
(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations / Organização das Nações Unidas para Alimentação e Agricultura)
relacionadas às questões de segurança alimentar e ao combate à fome.