FAO: Number of hungry people worldwide nears 1 billion

Within the last three years, an additional 105 million people were hungry as the investments in the agricultural sector had reduced and the agricultural prices had risen, said Director-General Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Dr Jacques Diouf, at the 27th FAO regional conference for Europe, taking place in Yerevan.

Jacques Diouf said that the number of starving people hit 1 billion in 2009.

He pointed that the global financial crisis can put a crimp into the process of positive developments in the Asian region. For example, 50 million people have overcome poverty in the Central Asia since 1998. Meanwhile, the Central Asian region is more heavily affected by crisis than any other country, as the rural economy here has been meeting serious problems, which demand on investments in order to overcome the difficulties.

According to Jacques Diouf, it will be necessary to increase food by 70% in order to feed 9 billion people in 2015 (of these 70% are expected to live in the cities).

“The rural economy of the developing countries will need $44 billion investments. The growth of investments will reduce number of hungry people. The experts consider nearly 10 billion hectares of fields in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine can be used for corning,” Mr. Diouf said.