Business Desk :
A perfect storm of events has combined to create the worst threats to global food security in decades, highlighting the need for coordinated action to halt a worrying surge in hunger, and to respond to longer-term challenges to the very future of sustainable food production, said the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Pressures on food security are coming from multiple sources. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the main driver of food price inflation but other factors are at play including the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic which has disrupted food supply chains, macro-economic challenges, and the imposition of trade restrictions by some countries which have affected the availability of a number of food commodities.
Hovering over these issues is the even greater challenge of climate change which is already having deep and lasting impacts on agricultural production, with a recent study showing that global farming productivity has been suppressed by 21 per cent as a result of climate extremes.
Scorching heat waves and droughts in major growing regions of the northern hemisphere during the summer of 2022, and extreme flooding in many parts of the world, including East and South Asia, are ominous signs of a rapidly worsening climate problem, said the ADB in an article.
Currently, millions of people are facing chronic food shortages. Record price spikes in food and fuel threaten to push many low-income families, who spend a large proportion of their household budget on these commodities, into extreme poverty. Asia and the Pacific are in the eye of this storm with half of the world’s 600 million people classified as hungry, living in the region.
In Sri Lanka, food price inflation has exceeded 90 per cent and, combined with a debt crisis, is threatening to push millions into a prolonged period of hunger and poverty, while countries, such as Bangladesh and Pakistan face severe localised food insecurity. Spikes in global interest rates that have led to capital flight and currency depreciation have hurt many ADB developing member countries (DMCs) with heavy food import needs, such as Cambodia, Fiji, Georgia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand.
