China has made rapid progress in the battle of reducing hunger,
officials from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture
Organization said in Washington Tuesday in a report titled "the
State of Food Insecurity in the World 2002."
China has made rapid progress in the battle of reducing hunger,
officials from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) said in Washington Tuesday in a release of a
report titled "The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2002."
In
China, the number of people suffering from undernourishment
declined by 74 million during the period between 1992 to 2000,
according to the FAO report.
Charles Riemenschneider, FAO director in North America, attributed
the improvement made by China to a number of factors including
policy incentives to local agricultural producers, good
infrastructures and technologies for green revolution.
Answering a question about what kind of further work China needs to
do in the effort for hunger reduction, Riemenschneider noted
agricultural diversity. He said China has scientific capability to
continue the effort.
While a few developing countries including China has made rapid
progress in combating hunger, the general picture across the world
is not satisfying. Riemenschneider said "I don't have very good
news to report today" as he talked about the worldwide hunger
reduction.
According to FAO's latest estimate for 1998-2000, 840 million
people are undernourished worldwide, and the hunger reduction has
been progressing at a much slower pace compared to the trends
published in previous reports.
The latest report claims a reduction of only 2.5 million
hungrypeople, while the decline reported in 2000 was 8 million
annually and the number reported in 2001 was 6 million.
(Xinhua News
Agency October 16, 2002)