FAO official says Caribbean countries made strides last year in reducing hunger

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Mario Lubetkin, the Assistant Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) during his interview with CMC (CMC Photo)

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) countries were able to reduce hunger among their populations last year, even as it increased significantly from 2019 to 2021 and the world has gone back 15 years, with hunger levels comparable to those of 2008-2009.

“The good news, if we can have a good news, is that Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region to reduce hunger in the report that we presented during G20 (an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU) and last year in the report that we presented in July in the United Nation in New York,” Mario Lubetkin, the Assistant Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) in an exclusive interview.

The “State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) in the World,” which is an annual flagship report jointly prepared by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), showed that the percentage of hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean had risen from 5.6 per cent in 2019 to 6.9 per cent in 2021, but that there is a progressive reduction, reaching 6.2 per cent last year.

Lubetkin said this means that during the last two consecutive years, 4.3 million people have been recorded as no longer suffering from hunger, mainly thanks to a recovery in South America.

“It’s good news, but we cannot be satisfied, because in the region, we are talking about 41 million people with hunger,” he said.

Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries have embarked upon an initiative to reduce their food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025 and in the process growing and producing much of the foods being imported into the region.

In March this year, Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali, who is spearheading the Caricom initiative as the regional leader with responsibility for the agriculture sector in the quasi Caricom cabinet, said the goal is currently at 70 per cent completion.

“A recent review, in February of 2024, puts our progress at close to 70 per cent of our objective since starting the initiative three years ago,” he said then.

But the communique that followed the Caricom summit held in Grenada at the end of July, noted that by the first quarter of 2024, regional countries had recorded a 30 per cent achievement of targets set and a 12 per cent decline in real imports, equal to a quarter of a billion (US) dollars.

The summit also noted the development of a Regional Youth in Agriculture Strategy and the launch of the Regional Economic Agri-Insurance Programme (REAP) as positive steps toward building resilience and production.

In addition, the regional leaders also urged regional financial institutions to provide a special programme of support to the agriculture stakeholders and enterprises towards recovery and rehabilitation of the sector.

They also agreed to the adoption of a regional resilient Farmstead- Shadehouse Model geared towards the economic improvement of rural family farms. This model is adaptable to the specific circumstances of particular member states, according to the communique.

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