Uganda is set to join the rest of the World in commemorating the World Food Day that calls for action across sectors to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone.
The day will be held under the theme ‘Our Actions are Our Future. Healthy diets for a Zero Hunger Uganda’ and the commemoration will be marked at the Bulindi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute in Hoima District on the 16th of October.
According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018 report, an estimated 821 million people suffered from chronic hunger in 2017 of which 60 percent of the world’s hungry are women.
The activities in Uganda are coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
Agriculture ministry notes that 70 percent of the world’s extreme poor live in rural areas. Most of them depend on agriculture. Hunger kills more people every year than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS combined and about 45 percent of infant deaths are related to under nutrition. Stunting still affects 151 million children under the age of five years.
To meet demand, according to ministry of agriculture, in 2050, the sector will need to produce almost 50 percent more food, feed and biofuel than it did in 2012. One third of the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted. Food losses and waste amount to roughly US$ 680 billion in industrialized countries and US$ 310 billion in developing countries, or nearly US$ 1 trillion in total.
