The Zero Hunger Goal

Authors:
B19088 N Nikhil Jain
B19094 Radhika Garg
B19098 Dilip Chandra Santhosh Revuluri
B19106 Shashwat Dharmadhikari
B19108 Shounak Ghosh
B19115 Umang Tharad

Hunger has become a significant problem with the increasing world population, unequal distribution and careless handling of resources. According to the World Food Programme, one out of every nine people in the world do not get enough food to eat. There are 821 million malnourished people, which includes 150 million children below the age of five years. In 2017, two-thirds of the total malnourished were from Asia.

Hunger and malnutrition have not only leads to poor health but also affects development in other areas like employment and education. Unsustainable practices by people have led to many environmental issues such as water scarcity, groundwater depletion, soil erosion and because of which many rural households have not been able to meet their needs and forced to migrate to cities in search of opportunities.

One of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is Zero Hunger, which pledges to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.Achieving this will require help and support from governments, private players and citizens.

Objectives of Zero Hunger

The main objective is to get rid of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. There is an emphasis to address the critically vulnerable sections of society, namely children under five years of age, adolescents, pregnant women, and senior citizens.

By 2020, work with seed and plant banks from regional to international levels to ensure the preservation of genetics.
By 2025, attain the agreed targets for reduction in the number of stunted children and fulfill the nutritional requirements for women and older people.
By 2030, increase the incomes of small producers of food by 100% by providing them fair access to land, inputs, guidance, and financial services.
By 2030, ensure improvement in agricultural productivity and develop a capacity to be resilient to events like droughts, floods, and extreme climatic changes.
Increase the investment made for agricultural research, technological innovation, and the development of rural infrastructure to enable the sharing of best practises and resources; there is an emphasis on international cooperation.
Create an open agricultural market by removing trade restrictions and export subsidies.
Limit price volatility in food commodity markets by correct functioning and providing timely access to information to all the people involved.

The critical dimensions for attaining this SDG are food availability, food accessibility, food utilization and sustainability. If all these can be executed, we would have a world where agriculture as a profession can provide decent income to families and ensure healthy world.

India’s situation

India, which is expected to be the most populous country, is ranked 102 out of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2019. Though it produces enough food to feed all people, it has 25% of the world’s hungry population. Also, due to the diversity in India’s food basket across regions, India’s challenges are unique.

The Government has schemes like Public Distribution System, Mid-Day meals for schools, Integrated Child Development Services (children under 6, lactating mothers and pregnant women) and National Food Security Act which intends to subsidise food grains to 50% of urban India and 75% of rural India. It is also working on ensuring diversification of crops, providing facilities for micro-irrigation and ensuring better prices through National Agricultural Marketing’s electronic platform.

Opportunities for businesses

By 2030, SDGs are expected to present $12 trillion worth of market opportunities. Increasingly, investors are adopting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing, and companies focusing on same can secure funds at a lower cost of capital. In relation to Zero Hunger, a report by BCG estimates $700 billion business opportunity in reducing food loss and wastage. In developing countries, 24% to 40% of food loss can be avoided with an improved distribution network. These opportunities can be in the form of development of warehousing and cold storage facilities, improved transportation infrastructure and supply chain management by leveraging technology and offering micro-finance and insurance products to the marginalized communities. For companies focusing on understanding the value chain could shed a light on the impact, they can create. Partnering with local farmers, respecting local rights could have a major impact on improving the income of farmers and food sustainability and security.

Initiatives by companies

Bain & Company: It played an important role in developing a plan for Akshaya Patra – an NGO which offers lunches for Indian schools – to feed 50 lakh school children on a daily basis by 2025. In agriculture, Bain helped set up Ethiopia’s Agribusiness platform to help small farmers scale and improve their livelihoods. In order to continue to offer pro bono consulting, Bain has committed USD 1 billion for the service.
Aditya Birla Group: The Indian conglomerate has contributed to mid-day school meals by partnering with Akshaya Patra. It has been serving over 40,000 children every year spread over 5 states in India. It has continued to support its farmers to improve productivity by organizing field visits for them, setting up biogas plants, providing training in multiple areas and also through financial support.
General Electric: GE has been leveraging technology to reach its targets. It is working with Anganwadi centers and schools to improve the availability of essential nutrients, offer clean drinking water and energy-efficient lighting for children in rural areas. The company lays focus on partnering with local players for its sourcing, which increases the income and ability to purchase food.

Challenges and Way Ahead

A large number of small-scale farmers

A problem common to both Africa and India is the fragmented agricultural land pattern and small scale farmers – they are not as productive and efficient as a consolidated farm would be and do not benefit from economies of scale. Small and marginal (below two hectares) farmers have increased India and constitute 86.21% of the total landholdings. Since large scale land consolidation activities are difficult to conduct, due to how the laws have been framed on small landholdings, instead the focus should be on increasing the bargaining power of such farmers and providing better access to new technologies at an affordable price.

Farming communities play a vital role in ensuring adequate food production in the first place. Around 90% of the farms in the world are family-owned, which cater to their own community’s consumption. It is important to penetrate into these communities and make them aware of the benefits of using sustainable farming techniques and the right equipment to optimize the production. This just doesn’t include the farmers who work on the fields, but also communities who earn their livelihood through forestry, fishing and pastoralism. Moreover, a sustainable variety of crops should be encouraged to be grown (in the form of incentives and subsidies) to tackle the problem of cultivation in the era of extreme climate changes and geography-wise food scarcity. This has a two-fold objective – firstly, a consumer market needs to be created for the diverse food options and awareness needs to be created to do that. Secondly, farmers should be provided with necessary equipment and technology that empower them to cultivate these crops and cater to the newly formed markets. The private players related not only to agriculture but also to insurance, communications and finance can play a key role through collaborating with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and providing farmers with the necessary instruments.

Governments can contribute the most, by extending social protection to the poorest 2 billion people so that their purchasing power rises. This is turn, will jump start local economies. The government can promote awareness about healthy eating and food scarcity. Moreover, with investments in research and development, it can ensure better food standards and in turn, ensure better pay for the small and marginalized farmers, which ultimately leads to better living standards in rural areas. At the same time, governments need to ensure that these farmers receive the right pay for their products and are not exploited by large corporations who acquire lands for setting up projects and factories. The goal of achieving zero hunger can be met only if farmers are not exploited and can produce to their fullest extent. Warehousing and infrastructure support by the government plays an important role in improving the life of harvest and reduce wastage.

Food security

Unfortunately, there seems to be a direct correlation between food insecurity/undernourishment and the stage of development a country is in. It even appears to be increasing in almost all regions of Africa and parts of South America. The food security score of Venezuela has declined more than any other country from 2012 to 2018. It shows how detrimental a country’s political and economic insecurity can be for its food security. Children and women are at high risk of malnutrition. Long term sustainable solutions have to be found to address the dual problem of an increasing population and undernourishment.

India has the highest child wasting rate in the world, which is a precursor to high child mortality. The reason could be an acute food shortage or disease. This is harmful to the overall health and development of an individual. To ensure a holistic approach to food and health, factors like nourishment, cleanliness, sanitation etc. have to be taken into consideration.

The gap between government initiatives and on-ground reality

For India, food security has been on the priority list since independence, maybe as a remembrance of colonial times when huge amounts of the population suffered due to frequent, widespread droughts. Since then there has been an emphasis on schemes like Public Distribution System. But this has also lead to farmers only growing a limited type of crop and in ways which have turned out to be environmentally unsustainable. The groundwater table in India has reduced to dangerous levels. There have also been leakages in the distribution system which has led to food grains not actually reaching the needy. Policy and scheme frameworks should be revised to ensure that no loopholes exist and the power of digital should be leveraged to get a better idea about how to help as well as how to implement.

Food wastage

The onus of resolving food wastage lies on us, the everyday citizens. Moreover, according to FAO, around one-third of the produce is wasted every year. While some get wasted in the supply chain, most of it happens because of careless utilization by the consumers. As responsible humans, we must take it upon ourselves to eliminate food wastage and make the society aware of the current trends in this regard – for, an informed society is a concerned society.

Conclusion

It is indeed possible to eliminate hunger by 2030, but that can be done only by bringing everyone in action – the governments, the private sector players, as well as farmers and small, diffused consumers like us. Solving this can open up the barriers to development and help people and country flourish.

References

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The Zero Hunger Goal - SDG 2

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