Morocco’s Minister of Agriculture Aziz Akhannouch has said that the world is facing unprecedented sustainability challenges in agriculture: being able to feed nine billion people by 2050 while preserving the environment and natural resources.
Aziz Akhannouch made the remarks on January 22 during the 13th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture. The Moroccan minister chaired a round-table discussion on “adaptation to climate change,” exploring sustainable agriculture issues in the world and the risk of food insecurity amid the world’s fight against, and adaptation to, the climate crisis.
Recent estimates predict a significant increase in the number of people living in poverty — to reach 100 million — and the number of people exposed to malnutrition — to reach 600 million — by 2030.
If world governments and other stakeholders do not take “necessary actions,” the situation could be even worse than expected, Akhannouch suggested, according to a statement from the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture.
Read also: Morocco Maintains ‘Low’ Hunger Level, Ranks 44th in 2020 Global Index
According to the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index of 2020, Chad is the world’s most affected country by hunger and malnutrition, with an index of 44.7. Timor-Leste came second with an index of 37.6.
The index showed that there are 821.6 million people that are considered undernourished or starving worldwide, with approximately 506.5 million malnourished individuals in Asia and the Pacific, as well as 239 million malnourished people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In Morocco, the level of hunger and malnutrition is considered “low,” with the country ranking 44th worldwide, second in Africa, and fifth in the Arab world in terms of hunger and malnutrition mitigation.
Based on the Index, the percentage of undernourished people in Morocco decreased from 6.4% in 2000-2002 to 4.3% in 2017-2019.
The prevalence of wasting in children declined from 4.1% in 1998-2002 to 2.6% in 2015-2019, while the percentage of child stunting dropped from 24.8% to 15.1% over the same years.
Meanwhile, Morocco’s child mortality rate decreased from 4.9% in 2000 to 2.2% in 2018.
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