More than 2.8 billion people in the world cannot afford healthy diets, the Director-General of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, Qu Dongyu, has said.

Mr Dongyu made this known during the 2024 World Food Day global ceremony with the theme: “Right to ‘Foods’ for a Better Life and a Better Future.”

‘Foods’ in the theme stands for diversity, nutrition, affordability and safety.

Mr Dongyu said that malnutrition in its various forms existed in countries and socio-economic classes.

He added that even in high-income economies, people were choosing convenient and unhealthy foods.

The FAO director-general attributed the problems to challenges in agrifood systems where nutritious and diverse foods needed for healthy diets were insufficient and unaffordable.

According to him, food security translates to food availability, accessibility and affordability.

“With 730 million people facing hunger, it is clear that there is still much work to be done, and FAO’s mandate to ensure food security for all is as valid as ever. This World Food Day, I am calling on all to renew their commitments to building more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems that can nourish the world,” he said.

Mr Dongyu said that immediate action must be taken to ensure the integrated ‘Four Betters.’

“For better production and better nutrition, governments should enable healthy diets for everyone by incentivising production and sale of more nutritious foods. They should also promote their consumption in a healthy way. For a better environment, we need to produce more with less; we need more quantity with more diverse foods with less agricultural inputs and less negative impacts on the environment. We need to produce enough diverse foods, while preserving biodiversity and protecting the planet,” he said.

Mr Dongyu said that,  for a better life, innovation such as information technology, Artificial Intelligence, biotechnology and digital agriculture were needed.

He also said that, to support governments, the private sector would need to shift from unhealthy foods and make a greater diversity of safe and nutritious foods available, affordable and appealing.

“They need to be our allies in addressing this global challenge. Governments cannot do it alone. “We cannot build peaceful communities without addressing hunger and malnutrition,” he said.

He said that the younger generation had a vital role to play, adding that a food secure future without malnutrition was a human right.

Mr Dongyu called for renewal of commitments to building efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems that would guarantee the right to good foods for all.

(NAN)