Both are rooted in uneven power relations that often are perpetuated and exacerbated by laws, policies, attitudes, and practices. Most closely tied to hunger, perhaps, is poverty, the clearest manifestation of societal inequality. ![]() 2020).Īs indicated in previous GHI reports, hunger and inequality are inextricably linked. In developing countries, the number of people suffering food insecurity is expected to nearly double this year, to 265 million (FAO et al. Recent estimates suggest that in 2020, COVID-19 will add 83 million to 132 million people, if not more, to the rolls of those without adequate food to meet their nutritional needs. Since the pandemic’s onset, global hunger has reached its highest level in decades and, if left unchecked, will almost certainly exacerbate the outbreak’s death toll. The pandemic has made the goal more elusive by creating an economic crisis, increasing food prices, and disrupting supply chains. Conflicts, migration, and climate change, and recently the COVID-19 pandemic, are hitting the poorest people the hardest and effectively maintaining parts of the world in continuous crisis. Despite years of progress, food security is still a serious threat. However, the current rate of progress in food supply will not be enough to eradicate hunger by 2030, and not even by 2050. Whereas the 2000 GHI score for the developing world was 29.9, the 2019 GHI score is 20.0, showing a reduction of 31% (Von Grebmer et al. A critical challenge is how to produce more food with the same or fewer resources, without increasing inequality or generating negative environmental impacts.Īccording to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the 2017 Global Hunger Index (GHI), substantial progress has been made in terms of hunger reduction for the developing world. Feeding this expanded population nutritiously and sustainably will require substantial improvements to the global food system-one that provides livelihoods for farmers as well as nutritious products to consumers while minimizing today’s environmental footprint (Foley et al. By 2050, a global population of 9.7 billion people will demand 70% more food than is consumed today (FAO et al. At the same time, food production, processing, and waste are putting unsustainable pressure on environmental resources. Around 822 million are undernourished, while 1.2 billion are overweight or obese. ![]() Today’s food systems do not provide sufficient nutritious food in an environmentally sustainable way to the world’s population (Wu et al. Research and innovation options and policies that could facilitate the requirements of both rural and industrial potato-based agri-food systems are described.Ī growing earth population and the increasing demand for food are placing unprecedented pressure on agriculture and natural resources. It concludes with a discussion about the challenges for sustainable potato cropping enhancement considering the needs to increase productivity in rural-based potato food systems that predominate in low-income countries, while promoting better resource management and optimization in industrial-based agri-food systems considering factors such as quality, diversity of products, health impacts, and climate change effects. After an overview of the current situation of global hunger, food security, and agricultural growth, followed by a review of the importance of the potato in the current global food system and its role played as a food security crop, this paper analyses and discusses how potato research and innovation can contribute to sustainable agri-food systems comparing rural and industrial agri-food systems with reference to food security indicators. Among several other food sources, the potato crop is one that can help match all these constraints worldwide due to its highly diverse distribution pattern, and its current cultivation and demand, particularly in developing countries with high levels of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. Food security has four dimensions: food availability, food access, food use and quality, and food stability. The main challenge will be how to produce more food with the same or fewer resources and waste less. In the coming decades, feeding the expanded global population nutritiously and sustainably will require substantial improvements to the global food system worldwide.
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