World facing unprecedented food crisis: WTO, FAO, IMF, World Bank
In a joint statement, agency heads called for urgent action as lower food grain production is likely to worsen nutrition crisis across the world this year; Africa to be worst hit
Hunger hotspots; source - FAO
Almost all major global organisations have raised a red flag about an “unprecedented” food and nutrition crisis across the world and mainly in Africa that is likely to worsen due to high food inflation, ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, natural disasters and supply chain disruptions following COVID-19.
Recently, the UN chief had also warned that we are amid the greatest risk of a nuclear war in decades.
In a joint statement issued on 8 February, the heads of the World Trade Organization (WTO), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank Group (WBG) and UN World Food Programme (WFP) said they are urgently in need of funds and called upon leaders to take urgent action to prevent a worsening of the crisis.
FAO Director General Qu Dongyu, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, WBG President David Malpass, WFP Executive Director David Beasley and WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that about 349 million people across 79 countries are acutely food insecure and undernourishment is a growing concern, especially in Africa.
“Globally, poverty and food insecurity are both on the rise after decades of development gains. Supply-chain disruptions, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, financial tightening through rising interest rates and the war in Ukraine have caused an unprecedented shock to the global food system, with the most vulnerable hit the hardest,” they said.
Two years of pandemic and then the Ukraine war have led to high food inflation, with several countries witnessing double-digit inflation. Meanwhile, undernourishment is rising alarmingly. Fertilizer affordability (ratio between food prices and fertilizer prices) is also the lowest since the 2007-08 food crisis.
“This situation is expected to worsen, with global food supplies projected to drop to a three-year low in 2022/2023,” said the agencies.
About 24 countries (16 in Africa) that depend on food imports severely have been designated as hunger hotspots by FAO and WFP.
Lower fertilizer affordability is causing a decline in food production and impacting smallholder farmers the hardest, worsening the already high local food prices, they highlighted. “For example, the decline in 2022 production of rice, for which Africa is the largest importer in the world, coupled with prospects of lower stocks, is of grave concern,” they said.
They advocate rescuing hunger hotspots, facilitating trade, improving markets, strengthening private sector, and reforming and repurposing harmful subsidies with careful targeting.
India recently decided to provide free food grains (rice and wheat) to the poor for the third year in a row. The government has also released central stocks of wheat to curb rising wheat prices in the market (read FCI to offload 30 LMT wheat to ease prices – MDDTimes).
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