Food security: the issues

Imagine if you could not be sure whether you would have enough food for your family tomorrow, next week, next month or next year.

It could be a real and immediate crisis, with aid and development agencies like Plan battling to fill the gap. Or, insufficient rains may threaten your next harvest, leaving you with uncertainty as to how you will manage this year, or next. Either way, this situation is devastating. And unacceptable.

Up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty.

Around 75% of the world’s hungry live in rural areas in developing countries.

Hunger and malnutrition kill nearly 6,000,000 children a year.

Many die from treatable infectious diseases including diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and measles. They would survive if their bodies were not weak and malnourished.

The first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) calls for the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.

Meeting this is also essential for meeting all other MDGs. Hunger and malnutrition are among the root causes of poverty and illiteracy, as well as disease and mortality.

(source: FAO report 'The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006').