AlQa'dah 29, 1433, Oct 15, 2012, SPA -- The goal of reducing the number of hungry people in the world by half is still attainable if countries increase their efforts to reduce hunger, the U.N. food agency chief said Monday. Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Jose Graziano da Silva said at the opening session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in Rome that "important progress" has been made in cutting the number of hungry people by 132 million since 1990. According to Graziano da Silva, the proportion of those hungry in the developing world also fell from 23.2 percent to 14.9 percent over the same period of time. Graziano da Silva said that further efforts are required to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) 2015 deadline to decrease the number of hungry worldwide. "As we renew and increase our commitment to reach the Millennium Development Goal for hunger reduction, let's look beyond it, towards the total eradication of hunger because, when it comes to hunger, the only acceptable number is 'zero'," Graziano da Silva said. The FAO chief also expressed concern over recent findings in the agency's State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 report that said almost 870 million people, one in eight, are still suffering from chronic malnutrition. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a video message to the CFS that greater action in fighting global hunger is needed. "You are at the heart of the next big push - eliminating hunger in our lifetimes," Ban said.
