The United Nations has called for a united front against hunger on World Food Day, with nearly one billion people suffering from food shortages worldwide, Press TV reported.
"We are continually reminded that the world's food systems are not working in ways that ensure food security for the most vulnerable members of our societies," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for World Food Day, which is Saturday, October 16.
"When people are hungry, they cannot break the crippling chains of poverty, and are vulnerable to infectious diseases," the UN secretary general noted.
"When children are hungry, they cannot grow, learn and develop," Ban added.
On October 11, a new global hunger index released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) showed that one billion people face hunger this year.
The 2010 Global Hunger Index showed there was alarming hunger in 25 out of the 122 countries surveyed.
"The present dramatic situation has come about because instead of tackling the structural causes of food insecurity, the world neglected agriculture in development policies, resulting in an under-investment in this sector, in particular in developing countries," said Kanayo F. Nwanze, the Nigerian vice president of IFAD, a United Nations agency and an international financial institution, whose mandate is to help rural poor people pull themselves out of poverty.
He added that there is too much hunger in the world, even though there are abundant global food supplies, better economic prospects, and lower food prices, a Press TV correspondent reported on Friday.
The number of the world's hungry has dipped slightly from its record high last year. Still, every six seconds a child dies of starvation.