The number of victims of hunger has now reached 963 million

The number of victims of hunger has now reached 963 million.

According to the UN, there are currently 963 million undernourished people in the world, an increase of 40 million in one year, mainly due to rising food prices. Sixty-five percent of these people are concentrated in seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.

There are countries in Southeast Asia (Thailand and Vietnam) that have made progress towards meeting the main objective of the World Food Summit (WFS) of 1996, to halve the number of hungry people by 2015.

In Africa, Ghana is the only African country to have achieved one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), thanks to the growth of its agricultural production.

Latin America and the Caribbean had achieved the main MDG before the rise in prices, but this rise in prices has increased the hungry population, reaching 51 million in 2007.

According to FAO Deputy Director-General Hafez Ghanem, a massive effort accompanied by concrete actions is needed to reduce the number of hungry people to 500 million by 2015 and thus meet the MDGs.