Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Food security and healthy diet
- The “State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” was recently released.
About the report
- It is published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other UN agencies including the WHO.
- The report estimated that 820 million people worldwide did not have enough to eat in 2018, up from 811 million in the previous year.
- At the same time, the number of overweight individuals and obesity continue to increase in all regions.
Highlights of the report
- The number of people going hungry has risen for the third year running to more than 820 million. After decades of decline, food insecurity began to increase in 2015.
- Africa and Asia account for more than nine out of ten of the world’s stunted children, at 39.5% and 54.9% respectively.
- However at the same time, obesity and excess weight are both on the rise in all regions, with school-age children and adults affected particularly.
India scenario
- The number of obese adults in India has risen by a fourth in four years, from 24.1 million in 2012 to 32.8 million in 2016.
- While India’s undernourished population has dropped by roughly the same fraction in 12 years, from 253.9 million in 2004-06 to 194.4 million in 2016-18.
Compared with China
- The report has a section on economic growth in China and India, and its effect on poverty.
- Between 1990 and 2017, the two countries had an average GDP per capita growth rate of 8.6 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively, the report said, citing World Bank.
- In both countries, the increase in GDP per capita has been accompanied by poverty reduction.
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