Today, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projected that 1.02 billion people will be hungry in 2009—a historic high caused largely by the global economic crisis. This represents a 100 million person increase from last year’s projection of 915 million hungry people—a revised estimate from the original 2008 projection of 963 million. 265 million of these hungry people live in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 32% of the region’s population. The FAO estimates that hunger now afflicts one-sixth of the world’s population.

After considerable improvements in the 1980s and 1990s, the past decade has seen global hunger rise again. Now, the financial crisis and high food prices have worsened the situation catastrophically. “The silent hunger crisis, affecting one-sixth of all of humanity, poses a serious risk for world peace and security,” said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. “We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger.”

Despite stable global food supplies—the FAO predicts fairly strong world cereal production this year, only slightly down from last year’s levels—hunger is on the rise. Although food prices have come down from last year’s peaks, they have not yet returned to pre-crisis levels and staple food prices are 24% higher now than they were two years ago. Due to fallout from the financial crisis, like job losses and pay cuts, many people have seen a significant reduction in their household income, which has been compounded by still-high food prices. Poor consumers face escalating challenges, especially considering that many of them already spend approximately 60% or more of their income on food. Reduced incomes can not only mean the purchase of cheaper foods with less nutritional value, but people may also have less money to spend on other necessities such as education or health care.

Not only has the financial crisis reduced the earnings of the poor, but it could also cause a decrease in foreign direct investment and development assistance, as the FAO warns. For example, the World Food Program (WFP), which provides emergency food assistance, has already had to scale back operations in some countries due to a lack of funds.

The increase in world hunger makes the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of people who suffer from hunger by 2015 the least likely to be achieved. The FAO said “substantial and sustained remedial actions” were required to reach the goal. Diouf urged governments to immediately implement social protection programs to improve food access. Poor countries, also Diouf stressed, “must be given the development, economic and policy tools required to boost their agricultural production and productivity. Investment in agriculture must be increased because for the majority of poor countries a healthy agricultural sector is essential to overcome poverty and hunger and is a pre-requisite for overall economic growth.”

As we look toward the G8 Summit in July, we are encouraged by the commitments of governments to put agriculture and food security on the G8 agenda. Today’s projections that even more people will be facing hunger further emphasize the need to make agricultural development and the fight against global hunger top priorities. Make sure to check out the full report here.

-Pooja Gupta