{"id":189860,"date":"2022-06-10T20:57:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T15:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=189860"},"modified":"2022-06-10T20:57:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T15:27:09","slug":"global-hunger-calls-for-a-collective-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/global-hunger-calls-for-a-collective-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Global hunger calls for a collective action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/strong>: In a statement, the United Nations\u2019 Secretary General, said that: Global hunger levels are at a new high. In just two years, the number of severely food insecure peopl<\/strong>e has doubled from 135 million to 276 million.<\/p>\n

The present situation is pointing towards a global food shortage. It may push millions of people into food insecurity,<\/strong> followed by malnutrition<\/strong>, mass hunger<\/strong> and famine<\/strong>, in a crisis that could last for years.<\/p>\n

What are the causes of stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Proximate Causes<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The coronavirus pandemic created food insecurity<\/strong> by disrupting agricultural production, supply-chains and livelihoods.<\/p>\n

The cost of energy and fertilizers rose sharply due to high crude oil prices between late 2020 and early 2022.<\/p>\n

The Russia-Ukraine war<\/strong> has disrupted world wheat exports and world maize exports, as both countries are major exporters. This has been due to blockades and economic sanctions.<\/p>\n

Climate change has impacted wheat yield in 2022. For example, the world\u2019s largest producer of wheat<\/strong> (China) is facing rain, the world\u2019s second-largest producer of wheat<\/strong> (India) is facing an unprecedented heat wave<\/strong>, the US wheat belts have insufficient rain etc.<\/p>\n

Another cause of concern is that world prices of wheat<\/strong> have risen by 60% in less than six months. In addition, energy, fertilizers and pesticides are surging which will adversely impact agricultural output.<\/p>\n

The availability of food grains for human consumption is constrained not only by output levels, but also by alternative uses. For example,<\/p>\n

(a) 33% of maize produced in the US and 40% of wheat produced by the EU is fed to cows.<\/p>\n

(b) proportion of grains and vegetable oils are used to make biofuels\u2014ethanol and biodiesel.<\/p>\n

Ultimate Causes<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There is a deeper structural problem<\/strong> in the world food system.<\/p>\n

(1) production and exports are concentrated in 10-12 countries. like Eleven countries account for 70% of global wheat production. Just ten countries account for 86% of world wheat exports.<\/p>\n

(2) A relatively small proportion of world output \u201425% for wheat and 15% for maize\u2014is exported. The rich countries are the major exporters.<\/p>\n

(3) Similarly, just ten countries<\/strong> account for 83% of world imports. All ten are developing countries. Around 2\/3rd of the world\u2019s population lives in these countries in the developing world.<\/p>\n

(4) The regions that are dependent on wheat imports for food are North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Russia and Ukraine provide 25%-75% of their wheat imports.<\/p>\n

(5) Poor<\/strong> is the most vulnerable section in these countries which are hardest hit. They spend at least 40%, of their income on food. As per Amartya Sen\u2019s analysis <\/strong>in Poverty and Famines, famine deaths are caused due to income shortage rather than food shortages.<\/p>\n

Consequences<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The poor countries cannot afford to buy scarce food at high prices. Therefore, poor will suffer hunger and starvation<\/p>\n

The situation will further unleash economic<\/strong>, social<\/strong> and political tensions <\/strong>within these countries in the developing world, which could spill over across national boundaries.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

Global hunger is a global problem. It requires international collective action<\/strong> instead of national actions <\/strong>in isolation. Therefore, the measures should be implemented with solidarity through cooperation.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cGlobal hunger calls for a collective action<\/strong>\u201d published in the Live Mint<\/strong> on 10th<\/sup> June 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: In a statement, the United Nations\u2019 Secretary General, said that: Global hunger levels are at a new high. In just two years, the number of severely food insecure people has doubled from 135 million to 276 million. The present situation is pointing towards a global food shortage. It may push millions of people into… Continue reading Global hunger calls for a collective action<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10501],"class_list":["post-189860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-live-mint","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704878161},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}