Since the 1990s, developed countries' agricultural assistance to developing ones dropped by 75 percent, statistics show. At the World Food Summit in Rome in November last year, no heads of the G8 group of industrialized countries except for the Italian prime minister, whose country was hosting the event, were present.

At the summit, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged donors to help the 1 billion people on the planet who do not have enough to eat. He highlighted the plight of children, saying that more than 17,000 children die of starvation every day. That is one every five seconds and 6 million children a year, he said in his opening remarks to the conference. "This is no longer acceptable. We must act."

Ban said he observed a 24-hour fast to show his solidarity with a billion hungry people worldwide ahead of the event. The observance of a one-day hunger strike prior to the summit highlighted the UN secretary-general's serious concerns about world food safety.

A growth rate of the world population that is faster than global grain growth is also expected to aggravate a worldwide food shortage. From 1996 to 2006, the growth of the world population recorded an annual rate of 13.6 percent, compared with the 12.2 percent rate of world grain growth from 1997 to 2007. It is estimated that an additional 70 percent of current global grain production is needed by 2050 to feed the expected 9.1 billion worldwide population by that time.

Climate change has also exerted increasing influence on the world's grain production. Widespread hunger across the world is a growing threat to world peace and security and hunger has become a source of potential conflict and migration.

In many developing nations, the negative impact caused by hunger has spread to the political and economic spheres.

The international community should not turn a blind eye to this and should rush to take joint action to ensure world grain security and give everyone access to enough food.

The author is a researcher with the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily 04/23/2010 page8)