Gulf News

Food shortage must be solved now

- By Sumitra Nair The reader is a lawyer and writer.

In the midst of all the economic and political conflicts you see today, you have probably heard about hunger being a global crisis. Millions of people are experienci­ng unpreceden­ted food shortages and famine all around the world. This means people are starving to death. Data from the Internatio­nal Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has revealed details of the countries that are seriously affected by food wastage.

When we think of hunger, we imagine those children with distended bellies, whom we see in photograph­s, but that is not all. The magnitude of the problem is missed by most of us. Food shortage is a serious crisis and needs to be addressed.

The extent of this crisis is more evident in children. Lack of nutrition at a growing stage will cause malnutriti­on, which can affect the intellect of a child, giving rise to a number of diseases. Instead of solving the real problem, everyone is occupied with attacking trolls and participat­ing in online debates about the same issue. If young people stepped up and discussed this problem, making it a point to raise a voice against poverty and hunger, we would have become a modern progressiv­e world in the true sense.

Lack of proper food, no access to drinking water, lack of sanitation facilities and gender inequity are all contributo­ry factors to world hunger and malnutriti­on among a large part of the population. However, the lack of knowledge and awareness is the reason for shaping such crisis. We need to educate people, especially the youth so that they can take the necessary steps to get rid of this problem for the benefit of society and help mankind.

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