The number of people going hungry has been gradually rising since 2015, according to a release issued by the 8th APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting and received here on Friday.
In 2022, food insecurity increased significantly, with around 735 million people facing hunger around the world, or 122 million more people than in 2019, before the pandemic, it said.
Agriculture and food ministers around the Asia-Pacific region convened in Seattle, the United States, on Thursday to discuss ways to step up measures to feed an increasing population with limited resources in the face of challenges posed by a changing climate.
"It is important to recognize that food and nutrition security requires food be simultaneously available, accessible, stable, as well as affordable," said US Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas Vilsack, while addressing his counterparts at the opening of the APEC meeting in Seattle.
"Constrictions within any of these components can result in food and nutrition insecurity," he pointed out.
Secretary Vilsack, who also chaired the meeting, emphasized that increasing agricultural productivity is also essential to meet the needs of a growing global population.
"In order to produce more, while minimizing environmental impacts, we must leverage innovation and foster new ways of doing things," he said.
"Only by leveraging innovation and science, including biotechnology, can we provide our farmers, fishers, foresters, and other producers with the tools they need to improve productivity, sustainability, and resilience," he added.
Vilsack also highlighted that technological advances must be made accessible to producers of all sizes and types in all parts of the world.
"Open markets and science-driven regulatory regimes are also critical to innovative new technologies being available," he said.
He further stressed that climate change adaptation and mitigation and sustainable growth in agricultural productivity are also inextricably linked to food and nutrition security, further underscoring the critical role innovation will play in the future in addressing these challenges.
"Accelerating agricultural productivity growth to reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture is also imperative," he said.
According to Vilsack, without agricultural productivity growth, meeting the world’s current and future food needs would require increased use of natural resources, including the expansion of agriculture into forests and other critical ecosystems.
"Such an expansion would threaten our ability to meet GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions reduction goals, even if other human activities were dramatically curtailed. The consequences of failing to accelerate agricultural productivity growth could be dire," he underlined.
He further explained that changes to the agricultural and food systems can only happen at the needed scale and speed if farmers and other rural stakeholders reap the benefits of sustainable climate-smart policies and practices as they strive to maximize their productivity and profitability.
"The time is, in fact, now, and together we can achieve sustainable, equitable, and resilient agri-food systems, which is the premise of our agriculture theme for this host year," Vilsack added.
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Reporter: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
Editor: Sri Haryati
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