The United Nations and the OECD warned on Monday that the goal of eradicating world hunger by 2030, one of the major sustainable development goals set by the UN, is unlikely to be achieved due to the effects of the current pandemic.

The warning comes in a joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), released this Monday, which points out that the current pandemic crisis has aggravated malnutrition situations in the world.

Although the agriculture and food sector was able to weather the covid-19 disease pandemic better overall than other areas of the economy, "the combined effect of income losses and food price inflation has made it more difficult for many people to access healthy food," the report highlighted.

"Global average food availability per person will increase by 4% over the next ten years, reaching just over 3 025 kcal (kilocalories)/day in 2030," state the projections of the two organizations, which specify that this increase will be reflected mainly in middle-income countries.

In low-income countries, the organizations stressed, "the diet will remain largely unchanged.

For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where 224.3 million people were undernourished between 2017 and 2019, "per capita food availability (per capita) is expected to increase by only 2.5% over the next decade and settle at 2,500 kcal/day in 2030," FAO and OECD point out.

As far as per capita consumption of animal protein is concerned, the two organizations predict that it will "stabilize" in the so-called richer countries, where consumers will increasingly replace red meat with poultry and dairy products, mainly due to environmental issues.

This is a different scenario in middle-income countries, where demand for livestock and fish products will continue to be strong.

"Per capita animal protein availability will increase by 11%, reducing the consumption gap with high-income countries by 4%, to 30 grams/person/day in 2030," the report specified.

Based on projections released in the joint FAO and OECD report, world agricultural production will grow by 1.4% annually over the next decade, mainly due to emerging economies and low-income countries.

Regarding agricultural and food commodity prices, which have skyrocketed since the second half of 2020, mainly because of strong demand for feed in China, the two organizations expect a "correction" for "the early years of the period covered" by the report (2021-2030).

Eradicating hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the well-known 2030 Agenda, that were set in 2015 by the United Nations.

In October 2020, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) pointed out that in more than 50 countries hunger levels remained "severe" and "alarming" and that progress on this issue remained "too slow."

"Although world hunger has gradually declined since 2000, in many countries progress is too slow and hunger remains severe. Moreover, these regions are highly vulnerable to worsening food and nutrition insecurity caused by the overlapping health, economic and environmental crises of 2020," the Global Hunger Index (GHI) noted then.