Halving global hunger is within our reach

Copyright: WFP / Gerald Bourke

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Halving global hunger is within our reach</h1>
<h4></h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>About 14 per cent of the world’s population is malnourished. In sub-Saharan Africa the figure is more than 30 per cent. Reducing world hunger by half is one of the top Millennium Development Goals set out by the United Nations, and the Hunger Task Force, established in October 2002, has just published a report outlining the steps needed to meet that goal.</P><br />
<P>In this article, Pedro A. Sanchez, director of tropical agriculture at the Earth Institute of Columbia University in New York City, United States, and the Indian agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan summarise the report’s seven recommendations, which cover economic, health and social welfare issues. </P><br />
<P>Many of the proposals hinge on science and technology, such as doubling investments in national agricultural research, providing genetically superior crops and livestock to boost productivity, and promoting simple technological solutions such as rooftop water harvesting to ease rural women’s workloads.  </P><br />
<P>Although the Millennium Project estimates that reducing hunger will cost anything from US$8 to 11 billion over the next decade, Sanchez and Swaminathan say the effort needed is well within our financial and technological capability.</P><br />
<P><a  href="/sci.cfm?redir=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/307/5708/357?ijkey=j1k8l3EIaiHnY&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in <EM>Science</EM></A> <BR></P>Reference: <em>Science </em>307, 357 (2005)</p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/opinions/halving-global-hunger-is-within-our-reach/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/opinions/halving-global-hunger-is-within-our-reach/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

About 14 per cent of the world’s population is malnourished. In sub-Saharan Africa the figure is more than 30 per cent. Reducing world hunger by half is one of the top Millennium Development Goals set out by the United Nations, and the Hunger Task Force, established in October 2002, has just published a report outlining the steps needed to meet that goal.

In this article, Pedro A. Sanchez, director of tropical agriculture at the Earth Institute of Columbia University in New York City, United States, and the Indian agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan summarise the report’s seven recommendations, which cover economic, health and social welfare issues.

Many of the proposals hinge on science and technology, such as doubling investments in national agricultural research, providing genetically superior crops and livestock to boost productivity, and promoting simple technological solutions such as rooftop water harvesting to ease rural women’s workloads.

Although the Millennium Project estimates that reducing hunger will cost anything from US$8 to 11 billion over the next decade, Sanchez and Swaminathan say the effort needed is well within our financial and technological capability.

Link to full article in Science

Reference: Science 307, 357 (2005)