SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 2: Zero Hunger

 

Hunger is the leading cause of death in the world. Our planet has provided us with tremendous resources, but unequal access and inefficient handling leaves millions of people malnourished.

Food and nutrition are fundamental to every aspect of life and directly underpin our health and well-being. Adequate nutrition is essential to life and all    possibilities for human development. The right to food is enshrined by international law, but it is far from universally realized.

While global food production is sufficient to feed the world’s population, not everyone has enough to eat. Limited access to food, malnutrition, and hunger remain widespread and devastating challenges for a lot of people across the globe.

 If we promote sustainable agriculture with modern technologies and fair distribution systems, we can sustain the whole world’s population and make sure that nobody will ever suffer from hunger again.

An individual’s or household’s ability to access sufficient food is strongly linked to their economic situation, livelihoods and resilience to overcome crises or shocks to the environmental and socio-economic systems they depend upon.

Those in a position of poverty or facing livelihood insecurity are more likely to

face hunger and food insecurity, with widening income inequality increasing the risks further.

 

Sustainable development goal 2: End hunger addresses food production. This includes increasing investment in agricultural research and development, ensuring sustainable food production, and improving agricultural trade and food markets.

Basically, SDG 2:End hunger is about making sure the world has enough delicious and nutritious food to eat, and that everyone gets a healthy serving.

But beyond the smaller country-wide programs there are more sweeping global strategies that can work. A few highlights:

Improving agricultural productivity:  This can happen through very simple and tangible agricultural improvements, like the use of better fertilizers and herbicides.

Small farms produce a significant proportion of the food in the world. Although global numbers on this contribution are not readily available, numbers from household surveys for about 20 developing countries indicate that small farms run by families may produce above 60 or even 70 percent of the food produced in these countries.

Provision of adequate farming materials including pesticides and herbicides would go a long way in helping small scale farmers with farm production.

When small or family farmers become more productive it leads to major gains.

Nutrition education: 

Quality food and nutrition status is a fundamental and crucial driver for health and well-being.

 

While improving agricultural production is essential for nutrition outcome, there are many complementary pathways including nutrition education, enhanced childcare practices, and empowerment of women in the household that are important to achieve nutritional outcomes.

 

When people are aware of good feeding techniques, and ensure pregnant women receive the right nutrients, it addresses the problem of hunger from infancy.

 

New technology:

Science has the potential to change the game. Genetic resources provide the material for selection on higher productivity and lower use of chemical inputs, resulting in less depletion of natural resources. If crops could be genetically modified to better withstand natural disasters, or if farmers were given technology for measuring soil conditions, weather patterns, crop management and other purposes, there would be more food for those who need it.

Empowering women:

Empowering women in agriculture through increasing their decision-making over agricultural production and incomes has been shown to improve both family health and nutrition outcomes.

 

Over 40% of the world’s agricultural labor force is comprised of women, but because of various social and economic barriers they are not as productive as they could be.

Women operate smaller plots of land, own fewer animals, and do not have access to adequate resources. If the gender gap was closed, agricultural productivity would go up in developing countries.

Women are also more likely to spend household income on food, so the more money women control, the more likely that money will go to fighting world hunger. All said, it is estimated that if female farmers were on equal footing with their male counterparts, world hunger would be reduced.

Thus, through providing greater access to resources and productive assets for sustainable agriculture to women sdg2 is also enabling gender equality and women’s empowerment.

 

Ending poverty: The leading cause of world hunger is poverty, and so economic growth is a key to ending hunger. It is simple in theory--more money and trade mean the world’s food supply can reach more mouths--but difficult to implement. Of course, this begs the question... how do you end poverty?

What can you do to help end poverty?

There are countless ways to donate your effort, time, food or money.

As is the case with every complicated, seemingly-intractable global issue, the first step is awareness. The more you know about world hunger, and the more you spread the word, the more likely Sustainable development Goal 2: Zero hunger will succeed.

THINGS TO DO

Find a charity you want to support. Any donation, big or small, can make a difference!

Try to grow some of your own food.

Do not waste food. Freeze fresh produce and leftovers if you do not have the chance to eat them before they go bad.

This and many more can help end hunger and achieve Sustainable development Goal 2: Zero hunger.

Thanks for Reading!!

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