According to the FAO, thanks to the development of agriculture today produces one-third more calories than needed for the nutrition of people around the world. Moreover, the pace of food production grow faster than population in the world. But a good and balanced diet remains the privilege of wealthy people. Hunger remains a problem in varying degrees for almost a billion people in the world.
As already reported “КазахЗерно.kz” according to the UN report, hunger in almost all African countries. In 2018 the number of hungry people, estimated 821 million, that is every ninth inhabitant of the planet Earth. The number of hungry people increasing for the third consecutive year. According to the report, the main causes of hunger are political conflicts, economic crisis and the effects of climate change. UN aims to eliminate hunger by 2030, but it seems more and more unattainable. Meanwhile, food shortages in the world. The reason for this imbalance? As it turned out, produced food used very inefficiently.
An earlier UN report about the use of food resources claims that about 40% of food produced in the United States, it turns out the garbage. In Europe annually emitted 100 million tons of food. According to the Organization for food and agriculture of the UN, about one third of all food produced in world is lost or misused. In the UK consumers throw away every year seven million tons of food, and more than half of this quantity is usable. As noted by Professor Pinstrup-Andersen, food in wealthy countries takes up only a small portion of the list of expenses a typical family and people are not too concerned about the economy. In developing countries the problem is reversed – there is not an abundance but a shortage of food.
According to the UN, the world produces enough food to provide every consumer with 4 thousand calories a day. In fact the table is only 2 thousand calories. Environmental damage from such waste is enormous. The area of farmland, which produces wasted food, equal to Mexico. The water that goes to irrigation of these lands can feed 9 million people, and 10% of greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries have their source squander products.
How to defeat hunger? The answer divides involved in addressing the problems of the people into two “camps.” The first “camp” supports the industrialization of agriculture in poor countries. They propose to increase the yield by sowing all large areas of genetically modified monocultures, processing field mineral fertilizers, pesticides and use at all stages of growing high-tech machines.
The second “camp” sees the solution to the problems of assistance to small farmers. They provide 80% of the world’s population with food. Meanwhile, many of them starving, because they were neglected for decades.
According to the expert Marita Wiggerthale Oxfam in the fight against hunger is important to develop agro-ecology, i.e. to develop the tools needed to produce quality agricultural products in the industrial sector. For this we need to improve conditions for small farmers, to minimize the effects of climate change and protect the environment. Through the establishment of their work may improve the fertility of the soil, and if you provide them with a variety of seeds, then they will receive a consistently high yield.
