End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) aims at fighting hunger in all its forms, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, and 2030 intends to represent the target year for achieving these targets.

It is, of course, nature that provides direct sources of food, and humans have succeeded in creating activities to support agriculture however it is necessary to promote sustainable agriculture with modern technologies and fair distribution systems. The world’s growing population, and consumption patterns are putting pressure on the environment and nature, thus is necessary to find new equilibriums which can sustain the whole word’s population and make sure that nobody will ever suffer from hunger again.

Moreover, rising temperatures, climate change, armed conflict and pandemics, like COVID-19, pose further threats to the world’s food systems. This highlights the urgent necessity to rethink our approach to the agricultural sector and invest more to improve agricultural productivity without damaging the environment and thus to reducing hunger and poverty.

  • According to recent estimates, almost 700 million people (about 9% of the world’s population) suffer from hunger.
  • The majority of the world’s undernourished – 381 million – are still found in Asia. More than 250 million live in Africa, where the number of undernourished is growing faster than anywhere in the world.
  • At the end of 2019 acute food insecurity affected almost one in ten people worldwide, is it to say approximately 750 million people.
  • An estimated 2 billion people in the world did not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food in 2019. If recent trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger will surpass 840 million by 2030, or 9.8 percent of the global population.
  • 144 million children under age 5 were affected by stunting in 2019, with three quarters living in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In 2019, 6.9 per cent (or 47 million) children under 5 were affected by wasting, or acute undernutrition, a condition caused by limited nutrient intake and infection.

Target 2.1 Universal access to safe and nutritious food

By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.

Target 2.2 End all forms of malnutrition

By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.

Target 2.3 Double the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers

By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.

Target 2.4 Sustainable food production and resilient agricultural practices

By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.

Target 2.5 Maintain the genetic diversity in food production

By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.

Target 2.A Invest in rural infrastructure, agricultural research, technology and gene banks

Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries.

Target 2.B Prevent agricultural trade restrictions, market distortions and export subsidies

Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round.

Target 2.C Ensure stable food commodity markets and timely access to information

Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility.

Challenge: we live in a world where 1 in 9 people is undernourished;
Solution: increase agricultural productivity and ensure equitable access to food for all.

Challenge: 75% of crop diversity has been lost to monocrop culture making crop more vulnerable to pest outbreaks and diseases;
Solution: diversify plant varieties to reduce crop failure and promote nutritious diets.

Challenge: smallholder farmers provide 80% of the food consumed in the developing world. Mostly rainfed their agricolture is particularly vulnerable to droughts and floods;
Solution: invest in smallholder farmers especially women to increase food security and improve nutrition for the poorest.

What can we do to help achieving SDG 2? At home, at work and in our communities, by making sustainable food choices, following a good diet and nutrition by combating food waste and supporting local farmers and markets we can change the situation for the better and move ever closer to this fundamental goal. Our power as consumers and voters, by asking both companies and governments to make more concrete choices and changes towards reducing waste and hunger, could be extremely effective.

What can I do?

  • …try to adapt to new varieties of food.
  • …commit to a more sustainable consumption.
  • …enhance the food storage, like the drying meat.
  • …eat as little meat as possible.
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The health of the planet is also our health: explore planethealthcheck.com to find out how to take more concrete action to preserve this fundamental heritage.

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