Rome - The current global economic crisis has triggered a spike in world hunger which has reached a highest level in four decades, according to the 2009 edition of the United Nations State of World Food Insecurity Report, released Wednesday.

Some 1.02 billion people are undernourished - more than any time since 1970, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme
(WFP) said in their report.

The number of hungry people, which represents around one sixth of humanity, has increased by 100 million over the last year, the two UN food agencies estimate.

Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries: 642 million people in Asia and the Pacific region; 265 million in Sub-Saharan Africa; 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean; 42 million in the Near East and North Africa.

Some 15 million people suffer from hunger in developed countries, the report said.

"Even before the recent crises, the number of undernourished people in the world had been increasing slowly but steadily for the past decade," it noted.

"Good progress" had been made in the 1980s and early 1990s in reducing chronic hunger, largely due to increased investment in agriculture following the global food crisis of the early 1970s.

But between 1995-97 and 2004-06, as development aid and investments devoted to agriculture declined substantially, the number of hungry people increased in all regions except Latin America and the Caribbean, where, the report noted, gains in hunger reduction were later reversed in this region as well, as a result of the food and economic crises.

The rise in the number of hungry people during both periods of low prices and economic prosperity and the very sharp rises in periods of price spikes and economic downturns shows the weakness of the global food security governance system, the report said.

"World leaders have reacted forcefully to the financial and economic crisis and succeeded in mobilizing billions of dollars in a short time period. The same strong action is needed now to combat hunger and poverty," FAO Director General Jacques Diouf said in a statement.

"We have the economic and technical means to make hunger disappear, what is missing is a stronger political will to eradicate hunger forever," he added.

Diouf and WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, welcomed some moves made by the world's richest nations, like the Group of Eight's so-called L'Aquila Food Security Initiative, in July which is "testimony to this renewed commitment" towards agriculture and food production.

"Nevertheless, there is a risk that a preoccupation with stagnating developed country economies and failing corporations due to the financial and economic crisis will shift resources away from the plight of the poorer countries," they warned.

The FAO/WFP report identified several factors which it said have conspired to make the current crisis particularly devastating for poor households in developing countries.

First, the crisis is affecting large parts of the world simultaneously, reducing the scope for traditional coping mechanisms such as currency devaluation, borrowing or increased use of official development assistance or migrant remittances.

Second, the economic crisis comes on top of a food crisis that has already strained the coping strategies of the poor, hitting those most vulnerable to food insecurity when they are down.

"Faced with high domestic food prices, reduced incomes and employment and having already sold off assets, reduced food consumption and cut spending on essential items such as health care and education, these families risk falling deeper into destitution and the hunger-poverty trap," the report noted.

The third factor that differentiates this crisis from those of the past is that developing countries have become more integrated, both financially and commercially, into the world economy than they were 20 years ago, making them more vulnerable to changes in international markets.

Many countries have experienced across-the-board drops in their trade and financial inflows, and have seen their export earnings, foreign investment, development aid and remittances falling, the report said.

The report includes case studies compiled by WFP in five countries - Armenia, Bangladesh, Ghana, Nicaragua and Zambia - showing how households are affected by the fall in remittances and other impacts of the economic downturn and how governments are responding to the crisis by investing in agriculture and infrastructure and expanding safety nets.

These interventions will help to save lives and families, the report said, but given the severity of the crisis, much more needs to be done.

"Small-scale farmers need access to high-quality seeds, fertilizers, feed and technologies to be able to boost productivity and production," Diouf said.

"And their governments need economic and policy tools to ensure that their countries' agriculture sectors are both more productive and more resilient in the face of crises," he added. (dpa)