The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA)

According to recent ‘State of Food and Agriculture’ (SOFA) report, our current agrifood systems impose huge hidden costs on our health, the environment and society, equivalent to at least $10 trillion a year.

Released by – Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) covering 154 countries.
It is a comprehensive annual overview of food security which had been published since 1947.

FAO’s 3 mandate are to raise the levels of nutrition & the standards of living of people, to improve the production & distribution of all food and agricultural products and to improve the condition of the rural population.

Findings of State of Food and Agriculture 2023

Hidden costs – 70% of the costs are due to unhealthy diets (high in ultra-processed foods) and 20% are environment-related causes.
Attributed losses like labour productivity were particularly elevated in high- and upper-middle-income countries.
Vulnerable – The hardest hit are lower income countries where the hidden cost is more than 25% of their GDP.
Increased consumption of processed foods – In peri-urban, rural areas and also in African nations as well.
It was driven by urbanisation, changes in lifestyle and employment profiles as well as increasing commuting times.
Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity – It remained unchanged for the 2^nd year in a row covering at about 29.6% of global population but still far above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
Hunger – 122 million more people faced hunger in 2022 than in 2019 and it also projected that almost 600 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030

Among the 9 south Asian countries, India had the 3^rd highest prevalence of undernourishment in the total population, after Afghanistan and Pakistan. The share of undernourished people in India, however, had come down from 21.4% of the population in 2004-06 to 16.6 in 2020-22.

Source:

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