World Food Day is celebrated this Saturday amid a United Nations warning about the “catastrophic and unprecedented” level of food insecurity and the fear of a further increase in the price of food worldwide.
“About half a million people are experiencing famine conditions in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen. In recent months, vulnerable populations in Burkina Faso and Nigeria have also been subjected to these same conditions, “the UN said in a statement.
The agency called for immediate funding to help 43 millions of people in various countries in danger of a famine.
According to UK-based charity The Hunger Project, 690 millions of people around the world live with chronic hunger, 850 millions are at risk of poverty due to covid – 19.
From those 690 million, the 60% are women.
Here we analyze what the rise in the price of food means for everything s and what alternatives are being considered to help reduce food poverty.
But first of all, we explain the reason for this increase.
Why are prices rising?
International food giant Kraft Heinz warned this week that people will have to “get used to higher food prices” as a result of inflation. Post-pandemic “widespread”.
Dr. Sarika Kulkarni, Founder and Trustee of the Mumbai, India-based Raah Foundation, agrees with the opinion of Miguel Patricio, Kraft’s boss Heinz, that food prices will remain high.
Kulkarni and the Raah Foundation have been working towards a better, healthier and happier life for the indigenous communities of India.
During the pandemic, many countries saw the production of raw materials fall, from crops to vegetable oils.
Measures to control the virus and the disease limited production and distribution.
As supply has recovered, many economies have not been able to adjust to demand , which has led to a rise in prices.
Increased wage and energy costs have added to the burden faced by manufacturers.
“Prices are a direct correlation of demand and supply,” explains Kulkarni, an expert in poverty alleviation.
“While the population increases and the demand for food increases continuously, the c The number of hectares under cultivation is decreasing due to multiple challenges and problems that include the availability of water, the deterioration of the soil and its quality, climate change and the increase in cases of extreme climatic variations, the lack of interest of the new generations in agriculture such as occupation, etc. “.
” Farmers face various challenges that are reflected in the price of food, which continues to rise, “he adds.
“Sex for food”
According to the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, “when the door finally opens, famine goes viral in a way that other threats may not.”
Women and girls are particularly vulnerable as a result of increasing poverty and rising food prices.
“Women speak to us d and the desperate measures they must take to find what to feed their families, including exchanging sex for food, resorting to early and child marriages, as I heard recently when I was in Syria, ”he recalled.
Some of the most food insecure globally are small farmers, says Karen Hampson, Program Development Manager at Farm Radio International.
“The current increase in the price of food is a weapon of double edge for them ”, he pointed out to the BBC.
“ On the one hand, peasant families need to buy the food they cannot grow, for what their costs increase or their access to food decreases, which generates hunger and malnutrition “, he explained.
And” on the other hand, at least in theory, the rise in the price of food should mean more income from the products they sell. ”
“ Without em however, in most cases rising food prices do not seem to translate into more income for farmers , especially for small-scale farmers in Africa ”.
As Dr. Kulkarni points out, poverty is directly proportional to prices; As poverty increases, prices unfortunately also increase, destroying the small budgets they had.
“The rise in food prices is causing malnutrition, hunger and many other health-related challenges for the poorest communities. It is trapping them in a vicious cycle of hunger, poor health and poverty. ”
Development Initiatives is a global organization that takes advantage of the power of data and evidence to try to end poverty, reduce inequality and increase resilience, and its CEO, Harpinder Collacott, agrees with Kulkarni.
“Poverty extreme in particular is calculated on the basis of the income necessary to satisfy basic needs, and food is a significant proportion of that, ”he explains.
“ If the cost of those foods increases, each more and more people cannot meet their basic needs, which means they are pushed into extreme poverty or below the extreme poverty line ”, he adds.
What can be done?
To cope with the impact of the rise in food prices, Inhabitants of developed countries may choose to avoid the articles s luxury, spend fewer vacations abroad or even carefully manage your budget.
In underdeveloped countries, as mentioned above, not everyone has those alternatives and there are those who are desperate who often find themselves They are forced to trade sex for food, as we already mentioned.
The UN, regional organizations and respective governments can adopt conventional approaches to lift people out of poverty, to face the challenge of rising food prices. And many charities around the world are focusing on innovative methods.
“Food and livelihood assistance should be delivered together, “says the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Qu Dongyu.
” Supporting agri-food systems and providing long-term assistance paves the way towards recovery beyond survival and increases resilience. There is no time to lose, ”he said.
But Collacott told the BBC that food poverty will not be solved only with more money.
“We need a radical reform of systems and structures that keep people in poverty ”, he points out.
“ We need a global effort, from all governments, institutions, companies and NGOs, that places the poorest people in the center of your focus to change the status quo and create a global system that does not leave people behind. ”
According to Kulkarni, what is needed is to promote climate-smart agriculture, increase the adaptability to change climate as the improving rainwater harvesting and storage capacity, lowering the price of seeds and other raw materials related to agriculture, encouraging farmers to reserve what they need for self-consumption and earn income by selling the rest.
In the last seven years, the Raah Foundation has guaranteed water to 105 villages, so more than 30, 09 inhabitants have had access to it throughout the year.
“We have been encouraging young people to engage in agriculture as a full-time occupation, providing them with the necessary incentives and creating agricultural corridors to ensure that focused agriculture generates better yields and therefore income” says Kulkarni.
According to Hampson, one of the c One reason for food poverty is that rural households in developing countries do not have adequate access to information on prices in different markets, so they cannot negotiate very well with distributors and wholesalers; or on improved practices or localized climate.
Farm Radio International, a Canadian NGO, uses interactive radio to respond to communication and information needs of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Agricultural radio shows can change that by offering advice on how to get better prices for your produce or other accurate and timely information,” he Hampson told the BBC.
“For example, in a recent project on climate services in Tanzania, the 58% of listeners rated their knowledge of how to use weather information to improve your agriculture as ‘best’ after listening to radio programs, and the 73% reported that they had improved their weeding practices after listening to radio programs, “he added.
Now what ue?
While it is possible that people from all over the world, both In developed as well as developing countries, wondering how to deal with rising food prices, activists express their hope that a crisis can be avoided, provided world leaders take swift and measured action.
“Personally, I would say that there is always hope”, says Hampson.
But only if “we listen to women, men and young farmers, we let them lead and listen to their concerns, we include them in policy dialogues and support their efforts, whether through cooperatives, farmers’ and women’s groups or innovation. ”
Adds that it is necessary to “ focus on the response to climate change and especially support marginalized groups and respond your needs: equal access to markets, access or credit, access to information “.
Dr. Kulkarni expresses a similar opinion: “We are hopeful, as there is still time to address the gaps as they are known and identified.”
But he warns: “If we continue to ignore them, we could have a problem and hope could fade.”
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