Immense challenges for world hunger: agriculture ministers

Paris: Efforts to rid the world of hunger face immense challenges as farmers deal with resource scarcity, climate change and loss of soil fertility, agriculture ministers from 65 countries said.

Economic and financial crisis and excessive price swings create uncertainty that endangers investment in agriculture, the policy makers gathered in Berlin wrote in a joint statement published by the German agriculture ministry.

Food production will have to rise 60% between now and 2050 as the world population expands to 9 billion, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates. The FAO estimates about 870 million people were undernourished in 2010-12. International food prices in the past three years have been higher than ever before, FAO data show.