Conflict, the climate crisis and now COVID-19 are forcing people to go hungry. One in three people (nearly 2.37 billion) didn’t have enough food in 2020 - 320 million more than in 2019, according to the World Bank’s analysis of World Food Programme data.
And 272 million people are already or are at risk of becoming acutely food-insecure due to the COVID-19 crisis, in the countries where the World Food Programme operates, meaning their life or livelihood is in immediate danger due to lack of food.
The FAO makes the case for using agroecological methods to strengthen the resilience of food systems, in a report published last year, especially in severely affected regions such as sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2007, a severe drought in Lesotho and South Africa caused crop yields to drop dramatically. The main staple food in Lesotho, maize, doubled in price and became unaffordable for many. A fifth of the population needed emergency food assistance.
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