World Food Day, 16 October 2016

By Dr. Abhishek Swami.
Associate Professor
Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida

World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many other organizations concerned with food security, including the World Food Programmed and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The main principle which World Food Day celebrates is the furtherance of food security all over the world, especially in times of crisis. The launch of the Food and Agriculture Organization by the UN has played a huge role in taking this worthy goal forward. Its annual celebration serves as a marker of the importance of this organization and helps to raise awareness of the crucial need for successful agriculture policies to be implemented by governments across the world to ensure there is ample food available for everyone.

In recent years, World Food Day has used its annual day of celebration to focus on different aspects of food security and agriculture, including fishing communities, climate change and biodiversity.

The World Food Day theme for 2016: “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too”
The World Bank estimates that India is one of the highest ranking countries in the world for the number of children suffering from malnutrition. The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world, and is nearly double that of Sub Saharan Africa with dire consequences for mobility, mortality, productivity and economic growth. The 2015 Global Hunger Index (GHI) Report ranked India 20th amongst leading countries with a serious hunger situation. Amongst South Asian nations, it ranks third behind only Afghanistan and Pakistan with a GHI score of 29.0.

India is one of the fastest growing countries in terms of population and economics, sitting at a population of 1.2 billion and growing at 1.5%–1.7% annually (from 2001–2007). India’s Gross Domestic Product growth was 9.0% from 2007 to 2008; since Independence in 1947, its economic status has been classified as a low-income country with majority of the population at or below the poverty line.

Though most of the population is still living below the National Poverty Line, its economic growth indicates new opportunities and a movement towards increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases which is observed in at high rates in developed countries such as United States, Canada and Australia.

As we all know, the world is facing a massive global food shortage. World population is exploding at the same time that over farming, overfishing and environmental degradation are all starting to catch up with us. Availability of land for farming is on the decline, water for agriculture and other uses is increasingly scarce. Together these and other forces will change the capacity of the world’s food production system.