Global food security encounters severe challenges

The Asian Development Bank warned that if food prices continue to rise this year, more people in Asian developing countries will fall into extreme poverty. However, global food prices have continued to climb. Experts predict that the trend of rising food prices will continue this year, food production will decline, and global food security will face severe challenges.

According to foreign media reports, the Asian Development Bank warned on the 26th that the increase in global food prices in the first two months of the year has set a record, and the food prices of many Asian developing countries have also risen by an average of 10%. If grain prices rise by another 10%, the number of people living in extreme poverty will increase by 64 million; if the momentum of rising food prices continues this year and the price of crude oil continues to rise, the economic growth rate of Asian developing countries will increase. It will drop by an average of 1.5%.

Changyong Rhee, chief economist at the Asian Development Bank, said: “The poverty-stricken households in developing countries in Asia have already used more than 60% of household income to buy food. If food prices continue to rise, these families can be used for medical care and children. The expenditure on education will be further reduced. If the food crisis situation does not improve, the recent achievements of poverty alleviation in Asia will be destroyed."

Grain prices rise

However, global food prices continue to climb. Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, said that the situation in the global production zone has not been fundamentally improved, and food prices may continue to rise this year.

He said: “The global food situation has not improved this year, and the prices of wheat, corn and soybeans have risen significantly yesterday. I expect that food prices will continue to rise, depending on how much can be improved in major production areas such as the United States, China, and Europe. However, the lack of significant improvements in grain production in these areas has been associated with prolonged droughts and water shortages in some areas, which has caused a significant drop in food production, especially the production of water-dependent crops such as rice.

Brown said: “The water levels of 18 countries including China, India, and the United States, which are the three major producing countries, are declining, and the water in underground aquifers is seriously depleted. The water shortage situation in China and India is more severe than in the United States because the United States Only one-fifth of the farmland is paddy fields, the proportion of paddy fields in India is three-fifths, and China is close to four-fifths. Sandstorms in northern China, Western Mongolia, and Central Asia have exacerbated local soil erosion.”

Reserves reduce food security and face challenges

In addition, global food reserves are also decreasing. Brown said that the drought that started last fall caused a reduction in the production of wheat in China. Russia’s winter wheat could not be sown and it had to be replanted with spring wheat, which resulted in a drop in production. The US’s wheat growth this year is also unsatisfactory. All these have made it difficult to achieve the goal of increasing the strategic reserve of food this year.

He said: “Global food prices have remained high since the beginning of this year, and the global grain acreage is expected to increase by 3% to 4%. However, the situation has not been ideal so far. Therefore, the global food reserves will not only not increase this year, but may also Further decline."

For example, Brown said that the United States has the world's largest food reserves, and the US Department of Agriculture stipulates that the set-aside program has previously been between 12% and 20%, and can only be cultivated when there is a severe shortage of food in the world. . But now, not only has the U.S. food reserves fallen a lot, but vacant farmland has also been cultivated. This shows the seriousness of the global food problem.

Furthermore, bad weather this year has also hindered the cultivation of corn. The longer the delay in cultivation, the greater the impact on corn production. Brown believes that May 10 is a key point in time.

Brown therefore believes that global food security is facing severe challenges this year.

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