Rome (Italy): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that many more people could slip into hunger this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He sounded the alarm in a video message during the launch of "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020" report, which says almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019, up by 10 million from 2018, and by nearly 60 million in five years.
"This year's State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report sends a sobering message. In much of the world, hunger remains deeply entrenched and is rising," said Guterres in the video message.
In its report, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said hunger had continued to slowly rise in the world, making it harder to achieve one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which has the aim of ending hunger by 2030.
"We are off track-to achieve SDG in 2030, SDG 2, and that's what we need to change," said the organisation's Chief Economist Maximo Torero.
"If we continue the trend we are, by 2030 we will have 840 million people undernourished," Torero said.
The coronavirus pandemic has made things worse, according to the FAO report, and because of the pandemic, the organization estimates that up to 132 million more people could suffer hunger in 2020.
Number of undernourished people in India declines by 60 million
Meanwhile, the number of undernourished people in India has declined by 60 million, from 21.7 per cent of the population in 2004-06 to 14 per cent in 2017-19, the report stated.
The report -- considered the most authoritative global study tracking progress towards ending hunger and malnutrition -- said that the number of undernourished people in India declined from 249.4 million in 2004 06 to 189.2 million in 2017 19.
In percentage terms, the prevalence of undernourishment in the total population in India declined from 21.7 per cent in 2004-06 to 14 per cent in 2017-19, it said.
The report is prepared jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
(With inputs from agencies)
