"Pandemic has worsened the situation of food and nutritional insecurity"
16 October 2020, Maputo- The Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Mozambique, Hernani Coelho da Silva, warned that the COVID-19 pandemic could further exacerbate the situation of food and nutritional insecurity, predicting a significant increase in the total number of malnourished people in the world in 2020.
"The Covid-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this terrible situation. Preliminary assessments based on the latest available global economic perspectives suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic may add between 83 and 132 million people to the total number of malnourished people in the world in 2020, depending on the economic growth scenario (losses ranging from 4.9 to 10% points in global GDP growth) ", he stated.
The FAO Representative spoke during the World Food Day celebrations, under the motto "Grow, Nourish, Sustain- Together, Our Actions Are Our Future", at the event held in Maputo, at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
"If, on the one hand, we have hundreds of millions of lives at risk from lack of food, at the same time we are warned to the need to avoid behaviors and dietary choices that may result in excess of weight and obesity, which, in the same extent, brings a public health problem in many countries around the world," he added.
To mitigate the situation, according to the FAO Representative, it is necessary to define smart and systemic actions that guarantee adequate production and distribution: "taking food to those who need it and improving consumption behavior for those who already have it. We must invest in efforts to avoid losses and food waste, improving the systems of storage, processing, transportation, distribution and consumer behavior", he said.
On this date, which also marks the 75th anniversary of FAO´s creation, the Organization states that, "in addition to conventional tools, new technologies, digital tools and artificial intelligence, properly used, may increase productivity, contribute to predict threats to harvest, reduce losses and waste, anticipate climate risks and put mechanisms in place to protect the ecosystem and biodiversity".
On behalf of the Government of Mozambique, the Prime Minister, Carlos Agostinho do Rosário, who led the ceremony, defended the increase in production in the agrarian sector to improve food security in the country.
"By increasing the availability and access of food to the population, we will also be improving food security under the "Zero Hunger" initiative, and thus reducing the rate of chronic malnutrition in our country" he said.
The Mozambican Government placed agriculture at the top of its agenda, in line with the commitments made at the Southern African Countries Development Community (SADC), the African Union and of the United Nations, especially for the achievement of the second Sustainable Development Goal of "Zero Hunger and Sustainable Agriculture", said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister indicated that, in recent years, the Government has been making efforts to increase resources for agriculture, and is currently allocating about 10% of the total State Budget to this sector, which contributes to the increase in cultivated areas, assistance and agrarian extension.
According to official data, the levels of chronic food insecurity in Mozambique are at 24% and chronic malnutrition is at 43% in children under 5 years, mainly affecting the north of the country.
In 2019, approximately 700 million people of our planet experienced moments of hunger, of which 135 million faced situations of food crisis, and of these, more than half were registered in 36 countries in Africa.
The World Food Day celebrations in Maputo were attended by the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Mozambique, Myrta Kaulard, representatives of diplomatic missions, Mozambican government officials and civil society.