One in five lives could be saved each year by improving diets: Global Food Policy Report

Kathmandu, Aug 12 (PTI) Poor quality diets are the main contributor to all forms of malnutrition and the leading cause of various diseases worldwide, even as one in five lives could be saved each year by improving diets, according to a report by a private research body.

According to the report, two billion people are affected by micronutrient deficiencies across the globe, 40 per cent of both men and women (2.2 billion) suffer from being overweight or obese, 148 million children below the age of five have been stunted, and 48 million under five years children are wasted (underweight).

These findings were published in a report titled '2024 Global Food Policy Report: Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition' launched by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Nepal last week.

This year's report focuses on food systems for healthy diets and nutrition and highlights a slowdown in progress on reducing undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in low and middle-income countries while observing a rapid rise in overweight and obesity rates.

The annual report - co-authored by 41 researchers from IFPRI and partner organisations - aims to sustainably reduce poverty, hunger, and malnutrition in developing countries by providing research-based policy solutions.

The event was organised in collaboration with the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS).

"We need to tackle four entry points: availability, accessibility, affordability, and desirability to achieve sustainable healthy diets for all,” said Johan Swinnen, the Director General of IFPRI.

Senior Director for Food and Nutrition Policy of IFPRI, Purnima Menon, said that one out of five lives can be saved each year by improving diets as poor quality diets are the primary contributor to all forms of malnutrition and the leading cause of disease worldwide.

"No single intervention, approach, or policy can accomplish the change we need. To achieve sustainable healthy diets, context-relevant actions must be people-focused, interlinked across the food system and supported by good governance," she added.

According to Senior Research Fellow of IFPRI, Avinash Kishore, over two billion people globally, including many in South Asia, cannot afford a healthy diet, making it crucial to address affordability and accessibility to improve nutrition outcomes.

Kishore, who has authored the South Asia chapter in the report, said the factors underlying poor diets include cultural preferences, agriculture and food policies, and food environments that favour rice, wheat, sugar, and calorie-dense food.

The report suggests as rice and wheat subsidies are popular in many parts of India, switching to direct cash transfers for food subsidies is worth trying in areas where grain markets are well-developed and where consumers have easy access to banking services.

It added that cash transfers would reduce the cost to the government of food subsidies, reduce distortions in food production and consumption, and afford consumers more choices.

Another senior IFPRI research fellow and trade economist, Devesh Roy, said that India and other South Asian countries need to open their market in food, "as no single country can grow everything on its own and if we start growing everything even those crops in which we don't have a comparative advantage then there is a huge opportunity cost for it." Roy added that India can import such foods in which it doesn't have a comparative advantage and can use that agricultural land for the crops in which it has that comparative advantage.

However, Ashok Dalwai, chairman of the Centre's committee formed for doubling the income of farmers, said, "We can not see things in white and black. We need to decide about our food trade policy case by case. There was a time when India used to beg for wheat, some years back when we didn't have enough lentil production then no other country was willing to give us lentils. So we need to be self-reliant." The GPFR suggests a shift toward better nutrition and healthier diets, South Asian governments must correct the historical bias in their agriculture and food policies and allocate more resources to promote the production and consumption of non-staple foods.

It added that crop-neutral policies would allow farmers to respond to market signals, including demand for more diverse diets, and the resulting diversification in domestic food production could also reduce poverty in the region. PTI MHS SJJ ZH AKJ ZH ZH