ROME – A new report out today sounds the alarm regarding surging levels of acute hunger. Some 124 million people in 51 countries were affected by acute food insecurity during 2017 — 11 million more people than the year before — according to the latest edition of the Global Report on Food Crises.

The report defines acute food insecurity as hunger so severe that it poses an immediate threat to lives or livelihoods.

The increase is largely attributable to new or intensified conflict and insecurity in Myanmar, north-east Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Yemen. Prolonged drought conditions also resulted in consecutive poor harvests in countries already facing high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in eastern and southern Africa.

Produced each year by a group of international humanitarian partners (full list below) the report was presented by the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) at a briefing for UN member nations in Rome.

It finds that food crises are increasingly determined by complex causes such as conflict, extreme climatic shocks and high prices of staple food often acting at the same time.

The situation revealed by the Global Report highlights the urgent need for simultaneous action to save lives, livelihoods and to address the root causes of food crises, the partners said.

Conflict continued to be the main driver of acute food insecurity in 18 countries — 15 of them in Africa or the Middle East. It is the primary reason for most of the world’s cases of acute food insecurity, accounting for 60 percent of the global total, or 74 million people.

Climate disasters — mainly drought — were also major triggers of food crises in 23 countries, two-thirds of them in Africa, and were responsible for pushing some 39 million people into acute food insecurity.

Conflict, climate disasters and other drivers often contribute to complex crises that have devastating and long lasting consequences on the livelihood of people.

Entire communities and more children and women are in need of nutritional support compared to last year, and long lasting solutions are needed if we want to revert this trend.

Conflict will likely remain a major driver of food crises in 2018, affecting Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen as well as Libya and the central Sahel (Mali and Niger), according to the report.

Yemen will mostly likely continue to be the largest food crisis by far. The situation there is expected to deteriorate, particularly because of restricted access, economic collapse and outbreaks of disease.

Meanwhile, the impact of severe dry weather on crop and livestock production is likely to heighten food insecurity in pastoral areas of Somalia, south-eastern Ethiopia and eastern Kenya, and in West African and Sahel countries including Senegal, Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso.

The Global Report on Food Crises brings together regional and national data and analysis from multiple sources into one document to provide a clear comprehensive picture of food crises and acute food insecurity in affected countries.

By providing evidence-based analysis, the report demonstrates that as well as critically needed humanitarian aid, development action needs to engage much earlier so as to tackle the root causes of extreme vulnerability, therefore building resilience.

The Global Network against Food Crises launched by the European Union, FAO and WFP at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 is expected to increasingly become the engine behind the humanitarian, development and peace nexus, promoting increased coordination between humanitarian and development agencies.

Key messages at the launching of the report were:

“Hunger and food insecurity plague the lives of millions worldwide. In the face of man-made and natural disasters, we should shape a more robust and strategic global response to food crises. The Global Report is a pivotal tool in putting the humanitarian and development nexus in practice and support us in our joint fight against hunger,” said EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides.

Neven Mimica, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, said: “Food crises are likely to become more acute, persistent and complex given current trends and their root causes with devastating effects on the lives of millions of people. We succeeded in producing a joint analysis globally with the annual Global Report on Food Crises. I am fully committed to take this approach forward as I am convinced that increased global dialogue, joint planning and coordinated responses will enable the EU, its partner countries as well as international partners to address better the root causes of food crises.”

In a video message, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “Reports such as this gives us the vital data and analysis to better understand the challenge. It is now up to us to take action to meet the needs of those facing the daily scourge of hunger and to tackle its root causes.”

“We must acknowledge and address the link between hunger and conflict if we are to achieve zero hunger. Investing in food security and livelihood in conflict situations saves lives, strengthens resilience and can also contribute to sustaining peace,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, said.

“The consequences of conflict and climate change are stark: millions of more people severely, even desperately, hungry. The fighting must stop now and the world must come together to avert these crises often happening right in front of our eyes. This Global Report on Food Crises shows the magnitude of today’s crises but also shows us that if we bring together political will and today’s technology, we can have a world that’s more peaceful, more stable and where hunger becomes a thing of the past.” David Beasley, WFP Executive Director.

Greenhouses Technology To Help Increase Agricultural Production

Greenhouses Technology: Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah El Sisi stressed on Thursday that using greenhouses and modern cultivation techniques contribute to increasing agricultural production and rationalizing water consumption, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said.

The spokesman said Sisi underlined the importance of relying more on modern irrigation techniques and setting up drainage water treatment plants to serve greenhouses projects.

The President, during his inauguration of the first stage of the 100,000-feddan project at Mohamed Neguib Military Base in Matrouh, urged businessmen to cooperate with the State in setting up these projects and to rent greenhouses to make the best use of them.

He made it clear that the State is keen on setting up such mega development project because they need a huge infrastructure. He added that it will take many years to implement such projects if they were left to the private sector.

Sisi added that the greenhouse project mainly aims at filling the gap between production and consumption, stressing that products of the greenhouses will not be exported until all needs of the local market are secured.

The president referred to the first and the second stages of Bashaer Al Khair housing project which is being carried out for limited-income people in the Mediterranean City of Alexandria.

Sisi said the project sets a great model of fruitful cooperation between the civil society, businessmen and Tahya Misr Fund.

The project aims at setting up 15,000 housing units and will be finalized on June 30, the president said.

Sisi called for providing a social insurance coverage for all workers operating in different development projects, saying around one million day laborers are working in projects carried out by the Housing Ministry.

He said the State is ready to set up, in coordination with banks, private sector companies, contractors and the Social Solidarity Ministry, a social insurance fund for day laborers.

A documentary, prepared by the Morale Affairs Department of the Armed Forces, was screened during the ceremony featuring President Sisi’s directives for setting up a national company for protective cultivation to be in charge of cultivating 100,000 feddans by the greenhouse system.

The project is part of the one-million-feddan national agricultural project launched by Sisi in December of 2015.

The film showed that 20,000 feddans were cultivated by the greenhouse system in desert lands and the rest will be finalized by the end of June 30.

The documentary shed light on the four areas where the greenhouse project is being carried out; Mohamed Naguib Military Base, Abu Sultan city, Tenth of Ramadan and Al Amal Village in Qantara.