Worldwide, 690 million people are suffering from hunger, and insufficient progress has been made in recent years in combating hunger, warns the global food organization FAO. The organization states in the new five-year report State of Food Security (SOFI) that international agreements are not being met.
The world is failing to reduce hunger, and now even more people are suffering from it. According to the FAO, in five years’ time there will be 60 million more people affected; that is 8.9 percent of the world population, reports the international news agency IPS.
This period is comparable to the time that has passed since the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 in 2015. In 2015, the United Nations agreed in sustainability goal 2 to 'end hunger' and to achieve this by 2030, as well as to ensure that all people, especially the poor and those in vulnerable situations, including infants, have access to healthy, nutritious, and sufficient food year-round.
The SOFI report concludes that the world is not on track to reach the goal of zero hunger by 2030. If recent trends continue, the number of people who suffer from hunger will exceed 840 million before that year.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) states in the June WASDE report on global food production that wheat production for the 2020-2021 season will be 4 million tons less. Previously, they expected a global wheat harvest of over 773 million tons. It is now estimated at 769 million tons. Especially for the European Union, the United States, and Russia, harvests are expected to be smaller.
According to the USDA, production in the European Union will be 1.5 million tons less, coming in at 139.5 million tons. Smaller harvests are particularly expected in Spain and France. In that case, it will be the lowest yield since the 2012-2013 season. Last year, EU member states collectively harvested 155 million tons.
British farmers sowed 25 percent less wheat this season and expanded summer barley by 50 percent. Both crops also have a significant impact on European markets. The British are the third largest wheat producers in the EU after France and Germany. Last year, a very good harvest of 16.2 million tons of wheat was obtained from the fields on the British Isles — over 1 million tons more than the long-term average.
The British Agricultural Office (AHDB) published the results of the current cultivation survey last week. Heavy rainfall and massive floods in the past autumn made it difficult to sow winter crops. In the United Kingdom, the wheat area decreased by 25 percent, or 453,000 hectares. Many British farmers switched to summer crops because they could not sow their winter crops.