By: Dann Okoth

Increased demand for water will be the biggest threat to food security in the next two decades, says a new report that calls for collaboration between scientists and policymakers to boost resilience in global food systems.

As many as 828 million people faced hunger in 2021, up from an estimated 811 million the previous year, with around 11.7 per cent of the global population being severely food insecure, according to new data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Droughts linked to climate change mean there is greater competition among farmers for water, while the report notes that increasing demand for water from growing populations is reducing access to clean water, groundwater and sustainable irrigation.

At the same time, ongoing conflicts such as the war in Ukraine and the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are reversing decades of progress — and threatening to derail goals to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all forms by 2030.

The peer-reviewed study published this month (15 July) in One Earth also identified drought and heatwaves in Sub-Saharan Africa, damage to ecosystems, and monsoon and meltwater disruption in Asia as major threats to global food security. The threats were identified by members of an expert panel and then ranked and prioritised.

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