Asia close to cutting hunger incidence by half, says FAO

MANILA, Philippines—Agriculture officials in Asia and the Pacific are hunkering down to shore up food security as the region’s millennium development goal of reducing the incidence of hunger by half in 2015 is “now within reach,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

But while the FAO’s parent organization, the United Nations, is pushing for an end to hunger altogether, the region is still home to three-fifth of hungry people worldwide.

The UN earlier this year launched in Timor Leste a campaign dubbed Zero Hunger Challenge, aimed at decisively stamping out hunger by 2025.

“Impressive gains have been made in reducing hunger in Asia and the Pacific … but malnutrition prevails and disproportionately affects millions of children,” the FAO said in a statement.

According to the UN’s MDG Report 2013, in Southeast Asia alone, the proportion of the undernourished to the total population receded from 30 percent in 1990-1992 to 11 percent in 2010-2012.

Also, the proportion of children younger than five years who are moderately or severely underweight eased from 31 percent to 17 percent.

Data from the UN Development Program showed that, in the Philippines, more than a fifth (22 percent) of children under five years were underweight during 2006-2010.

“In many developing countries of Asia, the stunting of children, a condition caused by micronutrient deficiency, afflicts as many as 30 to 50 percent of children,” the agency said.

The FAO earlier said that Asian countries including the Philippines needed to raise vegetable production by almost half as the population of middle-income earners would triple by 2020.

“There is a need for rapid development in this sector,” FAO assistant director general Hiroyuki Konuma said in a statement. “This is one of the areas where serious attention is warranted.”

The agency said that stunted children could be found in the Philippines, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, North Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Timor-Leste. In these countries, up to 50 percent of children may be affected.

State ministers and senior officials from 40 countries are gathering next week in Mongolia for the FAO regional conference to discuss how to end hunger and improve food security across the region.