Purestock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The number of undernourished people in the world has fallen by more than 20 percent since the early 1990s, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said on Wednesday.
In the newest edition of the U.N.’s annual report on world hunger, the number of chronically undernourished people in the world is 795 million — a decrease of 216 million from the period between 1990 and 1992. The new figure still represents 12.9 percent of the population, the FAO says, but is down 23.3 percent from nearly 25 years ago.
The FAO also notes that 72 of 129 countries that it monitors achieved a goal of halving the prevalence of undernourishment by 2015.
The achievements made thus far, FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva says, “shows us that we can indeed eliminate the scourge of hunger in our lifetime. We must be the Zero Hunger generation.”
“If we truly wish to create a world free from poverty and hunger, than we must make it a priority to invest in the rural areas of developing countries where most of the world’s poorest and hungriest people live,” said Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
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