Agriculture and food

Food and hunger

It's hard to imagine, but more than a billion people in the developing world live on less than a dollar a day. Without enough money to buy food, millions go hungry every day, with under-nourishment playing a part in more than half of all child deaths.

That’s why we’re committed to the twin targets of halving, by 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day, and halving the number of people going hungry.

While rises in global food and fuel prices have slowed down in recent months, domestic prices remain much higher than previous years. The effects on malnutrition and schooling could potentially undermine years of progress on the MDGs. High oil prices have also led to more grain being used for biofuels which has contributed to the rising cost of some foods.

The UK Government is working throughout the developing world to ensure that more people have the food they need to survive and that their countries need to prosper. This not only means providing emergency rations to stop famine - it also means helping to lay down the foundations to secure food supplies well into the future.

As a result of rising food prices and drought, food supplies have recently become increasingly insecure in the Horn of Africa - Ethiopia and neighbouring countries Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea.

The UK Government has been at the forefront of international aid efforts in the Horn of Africa and continues to urge other nations and donors to play their part in alleviating the situation. In Ethiopia alone, DFID has contributed £50 million to help provide food, medical supplies and clean water, plus special nutritional support for mothers and children.

In terms of longer-term assistance, the UK is helping to reduce the scale of food emergencies through a programme that secures the livelihoods of the country's most vulnerable households and ensures they get enough food to eat. Already, 7.2 million people have been sheltered from the more serious effects of shortages in this way.

Links

• How DFID is helping Afghan farmers to tackle food shortages
• World Food Programme
• FAO Hunger Map
• Summaries of DFID Food and Hunger Research from IDS Knowledge Services
• Research4development - Sustainable Agriculture