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 The study, published on Tuesday by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture
Organization, said although Asia- Pacific halved the number of
hungry mouths from 1990 to 2015, in many countries, progress has
faltered in the last five years.
"The results show that the rate of progress could easily lapse to
low levels or could even become negative, resulting in erosion of
gains made in the good years," the report said.
For instance, conflict-torn Afghanistan cut hunger rates by 8.7
percent from 2003 to 2008 but reversed the trend from 2010 to 2015,
with an increase of 1.6 percent. And in Bangladesh, the rate of
reduction was less than 1 percent from 2010 to 2015, compared to
10.9 percent between 1997 and 2002.
While soaring rice prices and poorer growth in agricultural
productivity have played a role, slowing economic growth is the main
driving force behind slower reductions in hunger, said David Dawe,
FAO senior economist and one of the study's authors.
Economic growth for Asia was 5.9 percent last year, down from 6.3
percent in 2014 and an average of nearly 8 percent over the previous
decade. With less money in their pockets, poor families buy less
food.
As a result, 12 percent of the region's population - or some 490
million people - remain undernourished, with most of them in
Southern Asia. Region-wide, nearly one out of three children suffers
from stunting, which carries severe, irreversible consequences for
both physical health and cognitive function.
With more than 60 percent of the world's hungry living in
Asia-Pacific, the slower progress in the region has led to high
global numbers of the chronically hungry.
Worldwide, 805 million people suffered from chronic hunger between
2012 and 2014. While chronic malnutrition as measured by stunting
has declined, some 161 million children below five years were
affected in 2013.
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Poor nutrition is the main underlying cause of death among
five-year-old and younger children, responsible for 45 percent of
all child deaths globally in 2013, the study said.
At stake is also the target of achieving zero hunger worldwide by
2030, one of the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals agreed last
year.
At most recent rates, only two countries in Asia are on course to
eliminating hunger by 2030, researchers said.
The study's authors urged governments in Asia-Pacific to accelerate
their efforts with efforts investing more in agricultural research
to produce food more efficiently and building roads to help rural
poor travel and find jobs more easily.
(Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers
humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and
climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
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