Nearly 1 billion starving worldwide

(August 14, New York, Sri Lanka Guardian) The increasing price of food has spiked the number of hunger-stricken people in the world by 40 million to reach 923 million in 2008.

According to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), more people will fall under the undernourished category if the current economic trend continues in the world.

"With a very large population and relatively slow progress in hunger reduction, nearly two-thirds (583 million) of the hungry live in Asia," the report adds.

Nearly 65 percent of these hunger stricken individuals live in India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the Congo.

The hunger report issued by the UN body cites soaring food prices as the main reason behind the deepening crisis.

"Prices of major cereals have fallen by over 50 per cent from their peaks earlier in 2008, but they remain high compared to previous years."

While the 1996 World Food Summit had set the objective of halving the number of hungry people by 2015 and despite some countries' positive move toward this goal, the spike in food prices slowed their progress, the report says.

"The world hunger situation may further deteriorate as the financial crisis hits the real economies of more and more countries. Reduced demand in developed countries threatens incomes in developing countries via exports. Remittances, investments and other capital flows including development aid are also at risk. Emerging economies in particular are subject to lasting impacts from the credit crunch even if the crisis itself is short-lived," the UN body cautions.

-Sri Lanka Guardian