The FAO says nearly one out of every seven people in the world is a victim of undernourishment. Seventy-five percent of all poor people live in rural areas. Most support themselves through agriculture and related activities.
The agency has estimated that food production needs to increase at least sixty percent by twenty-fifty to feed an expected population of nine billion.
The new report calls for doing "more with less" -- improving diets while reducing the effects of agriculture on the environment. Alberto Sandoval is a natural resources officer with the FAO.
ALBERTO SANDOVAL: "We have to make a transition on the way we produce food and the way we transform the food to bring it to the table to make sure that we have the eradication of hunger, that we reduce poverty and that we have a healthy and well-nourished population in the upcoming years."
Farmers operate five hundred million small farms in developing countries. The report says they need clear rights to resources like land and water. FAO nutritionist Florence Egal says production growth helps not only farmers but also others in related industries.
FLORENCE EGAL: "People who have no access to land or labor can actually generate income and add to local economic development through food transformation, through processing, through commercialization. So we believe it would also make sense in terms of job creation, in terms of job protection. And therefore we would be able to bring together the economic dimension, the social dimension and the environmental dimension. And I think this is very much the challenge that we are facing nowadays."
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25