Almost half of South Asia's 1.5 billion don't get three meals a day
NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - Scenes of starving children in the Horn of Africa could well be played out in parts of South Asia unless governments invest more in agriculture and give poor farmers access to finances, the Red Cross movement warned on Thursday.
Rocketing food prices, climate change-related disasters as well as land grabs are set to not only push the number of the world's hungry past one billion, but also drive some to the brink of starvation, especially in vulnerable regions like South Asia, experts say.
"One billion people go to bed hungry every day and the majority are in South Asia. We already see signs such as high rates of child undernutrition in India and Nepal," said Jagan Chapagain, the Red Cross movement's (IFRC) Asia Pacific director.
"If we don't address this now, it is possible pockets of South Asia could see similar scenes to what we have seen in the Horn of Africa," he told AlertNet on the sidelines of the launch of the organisation’s annual World Disasters Report on hunger.
Experts say that despite rapid economic growth over the last two decades, the region has failed to reduce its vulnerability to food insecurity, with almost half of the region's 1.5 billion people unable to have three meals a day.
The region is the most disaster-prone in the world, witnessing floods, droughts and cyclones every year, which devastate large swathes of agricultural land, often leaving millions of small-scale farmers with no means of income.
In pockets across the region, stretching from Afghanistan to India, the signs are worrying, say experts. More than 40 percent of South Asian children show nutritional deficiencies such as stunting.
"In a way, it is a hidden hunger at the moment. It's not as obvious as what we see in Africa, but its a looming disaster which needs to be addressed," said Chapagain.
He said governments needed to invest in agriculture and increase support for poor farmers for loan guarantee schemes, subsidised credit or the provision of capital for banks with a government shareholding.
"At this stage the world is producing enough food, but by 2050, we are predicted to have 3 billion more people and the concern is that if we don't do something now to fix the global food system, we will not be able to feed everyone."
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
