Food Insecurity Grows 30% in Latin America: FAO

According to FAO, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine, the number of people suffering from hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased by 30%. To address this, FAO calls on the international community to prepare financially and support family agriculture initiatives. 

Mario Lubetkin, Assistant Director and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, FAO pointed out that there are more than 56 million people suffering from hunger in the Latin American region, 30% more than the 43 million there used to be in 2019. “The climate crisis is getting worse. We are seeing the consequences of dramatic climate events such as hurricanes, droughts and floods across the world, which directly affects farmers, especially small producers, dependent on family agriculture. As a consequence, the rise in food prices arises from the complete destruction of plantations,” Lubetkin said. 

In this regard, Lubetkin proposed to “prevent the foreseeable and mitigate the mitigable.” He called for governments and international institutions around the world to prepare financially for the worst-case scenario. "First, it is necessary to face the current situation in the best possible way. Second, we need to generate adequate funds to absorb the impact on producers. Third, governments, as well as the public and private sectors, have to manage to partially absorb the impact of the prices that will directly affect final consumers," highlighted Lubetkin.

He assured that the regional office of FAO strives to boost familiar agriculture given that it represents 80% of the work base at the land level and guarantees quality production. He stressed that in 2019, the UN declared the Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028) with the aim of boosting the performance of these family enterprises in the eradication of hunger, fostering food security and sustainable development, especially in rural areas. “One of the initiatives that FAO has on the table is to bring family farming to schools. This is the best way to guarantee food supply for students,” Lubetkin pointed out. 

Another line of work promoted by FAO is that of innovation and digitization to promote food security and agricultural development. This has resulted in projects such as "1,000 Digital Villages," designed to improve the use of digital tools in agri-food systems and rural territories. Lubetkin explained that in Latin America, this initiative is aimed at rural tourism and seeks to help local communities take advantage of the digital environment to promote income growth and generate employment.