Food security in peril as Afghan crisis continues to escalate

Second Vice President Sarwar Danish said Thursday that 13 million Afghans have no food security and of this eight million are facing serious hunger problems.

Speaking at a gathering to commemorate the 3rd anniversary of Afghanistan’s Food Security and Nutrition Agenda (AFSANA), Danish said that most of these people are villagers living in rural areas.

“The national budget should be based on reducing poverty and eradicating hunger,” said Danish.

Danish also said that all key government policies should be based on reducing poverty and eradicating hunger.
He said war, poverty, injustice, a lack of water, environmental degradation and hunger are other reasons for the serious food security problem in the country.

Acting minister of agriculture Anwarullhaq Ahadi also said providing enough food for Afghans is their main goal.

“Efforts are underway to become self-sufficient regarding food,” said Ahadi.

On the other hand, World Food Program (WFP) officials in Afghanistan said at the session that they have accelerated their efforts to establish food security and are committed to working with partners in order to eradicate hunger.

Based on statistics, 38 percent of the population in Afghanistan was living under the poverty line in 2014 when Ashraf Ghani became president. This figure increased to 55 percent in 2017 and in July this year Ghani said that 90 percent of the population is living below the poverty line.

As the global food security situation seems set to continue to decline and humanitarian needs increase, humanitarian agencies are increasingly struggling to access the funds necessary to provide nutritional aid to the most vulnerable.

Increasing hunger has meant that the WFP will need an additional US$4.9 billion on this year’s budget. As a result, the WFP has been forced to scale back operations, even in severely food insecure countries such as Yemen.