Achieving Zero Hunger Goals: Right to food perspective

SAARC Agriculture Centre
Ganga Dutta Acharya, PhD
Senior Program Specialist
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Achieving Zero Hunger Goal: A Right to Food
Perspective

Presentation Outline
• SDG 2: Zero Hunger
• The Asia and the Pacific and SDG 2
• What went wrong?
• Are we ready for the transformation?
• How can we achieve the Zero Hunger Goal?

SDG 2: Zero Hunger
• SDG 2 aims at ending all forms of hunger and malnutrition
by 2030 through
o Doubling the productivity and incomes of the
smallholder farmers
o Sustainable agricultural development
o Correcting restrictions and distortions in the agricultural
trade
o Increasing investments in agriculture, thereby
o Achieving food security and improved nutrition

Asia and the Pacific Region and SDG 2
• The Asia and the Pacific region is a home to 4.3 billion
people (nearly 60% of the global total), and occupies
around 30% of the total land area of the world.
• The region is not on track to achieve the 2030 targets of
zero hunger
• Latest reports show 1.9 billion (nearly 45% of the total
regional population) people in the region are unable to
access and afford adequate and healthy diets due to
poverty and inequality.
• Nearly 376 million people in the region are chronically
undernourished.

• Agriculture constitutes the largest sector for
employment, providing jobs to 30% of the region’s
total employed population.
• Majority of them are, however low-productivity
smallholder farmers.
• More than 80% of the world’s smallholders and
family farmers live in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Agriculture sector employing 30% of the workforce
accounted for just under 5% of the regional GDP in
2022, reflecting its low incomes of the farm families.
• More than 36% of total employed in agriculture are
women.

• Paradoxically, there are significant gender inequalities
in the agricultural sector, as women face severe
challenges in terms of access to agricultural assets,
education and markets.
• Employment in the agricultural sector is typically
characterized by
o high rates of informality,
o lack or limited access to social protection,
o lack of collective organization and
o low incomes.

• Overall economic growth of the Asia and the Pacific has
been the fastest in the world in the last decade.
• Food production has also never before existed in such an
abundance
• Then, why still, nearly 376 million people in the region
are going bed hungry??
• Why it is still home to nearly half of the world’s poorest
people, rendering poverty and malnutrition key issues to
be addressed?

What went wrong?
• Is it merely a production or a distribution problem?
• Is it a socio-political or a technical issue?
• Who is responsible for this – state, market or the poor
themselves?
• Oversimplified solutions
o Increasing production: has it been working?
o Sensitizing poor: Victim themselves to be
blamed?
• Tackling symptoms but NOT the causes

Where is the problem?
Tackling Symptoms but NOT the Causes?
Gender
Economic
Class
Religions
Socio-cultural
Political
Legal
Caste
Development
A POVERTY MACHINE

Where is the problem in agri-food systems
• The priority of agri-food system has been the
commercialization, monoculture, yield maximization, and most
importantly, PROFIT. As a result,
• There are more than 30,000 edible plant species on the earth.
But 75% calories and proteins for human beings come from just
12 crops, and 5 livestock sources.
o Rice, wheat, and maize- alone contribute nearly 60% of the
plant-based calories and proteins.
o Chicken, Pig, Cattle, Buffalo and Goat contribute to 14%
protein and calories of the world.

Where is the problem in agrifood system?
• This has forced people to move away from traditional largely
localized, and highly diverse consumption practice to an
industrial commodity system of universal mass consumption.
• This has resulted not only into poor health and
undernourishment of a large mass of people but also huge loss
of agricultural biodiversity and environmental integrity.
• Most importantly, concentration of food sources in such a
narrow base has put our entire food system at serious risk
compromising fundamental rights to adequate food

Where is the problem in agrifood system?
• The profit-driven agri-food system promoted Land Grabbing
in poor countries for the EXPORT Markets- threatening local
food security.
o Export orientation leads to massive land transitions from
local staple crops (cereals and pulses) to cash crops
(flowers, sugars, and oils)
o This, increases the export growth and GDP but reduces
food production and creates a dependency on imports
and aid for basic food supplies in the countries.
o For example: agriculture accounts for more than 70% of
export earnings of Ethiopia. At the same time, the country
annually requires millions $ aid from WFP to address food
security problems.

Are we ready for transformation?
Growth
Profit
• FOOD
• Equity
• Justice
• Sustained Growth
• High
Carbon
footprint
• Degraded
ecosystems
• Increased
GHG
• High inputs
• Exclusion
• high growth
• Grow
PROFIT
• Low Carbon
• Low inputs
• Ecological
• Localized
• Diversified
• Inclusive
• Moderate
and slow
growth
• Grow FOOD
Fig: Trajectories of the Agricultural GROWTH
LDCs

Are we ready for transformation?
MAIN STREAM
- Commercialization
- Monoculture
- Mechanization
- Industrialization
-Inputs intensive
- Food Security
- PROFIT
Alternative
- Diversified
- Localized
- Ecological
- Labor-intensive
- Food sovereignty
- FOOD and
NUTRITION

A transformed agrifood system.
How to achieve the Zero Hunger Goal, then?
Production Consumption
Marketing
Quality Transparent Conscious
- Diverse
- Value-added
- Localized
- Small holder
focused
- Nutrition NOT
merely FOOD

If you have any query…. Please!
Thank You

Achieving Zero Hunger Goals: Right to food perspective

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