The Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) of the United Nations has affirmed that sustainable development is unfeasible
if hunger and malnutrition are not eradicated.
José Graziano da Silva, FAO
Director General said there cannot be anything called sustainable development
when nearly one of every seven men, women and children are victims of
undernourishment.
FAO in a press statement made
available to NaijaAgroNet revealed that millions of people are still hungry despite the
significant progress in development and food production as there are no means
to purchase the food needed for a healthy and productive life.
FAO made the pronouncement in
preparation for the Rio+20 summit coming up this month in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, that a sustainable future is being put to a limit as a result of the
challenges of food security.
"At the Rio summit we have
the golden opportunity to explore the convergence between the agendas of food
security and sustainability to ensure that happens," FAO boss said
forecasting the summit as an opportunity to discuss food security issues.
Hunger reduction and sustainable
development, FAO revealed are irrevocably connected, hence a better governance
of the agricultural and food systems are key to achieving both targets.
Further, NaijaAgroNet gathered that three quarters of
the world's poor and hungry live in rural areas and most of them depend on
agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods.
The UN agency also made known that about forty
per cent of the world's degraded lands are in areas with high poverty rates,
making hunger to put in motion a vicious cycle of reduced productivity.
Yinka Awosanya/LS
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology