How to fight malnutrition amid global food and nutrition crisis?

The world is facing a food and nutrition crisis that has impacted millions of families, countries, and communities. The reasons are an increase in the prices and a decrease in the availability of basic food items such as cooking oil and wheat. One of the major reasons why this crisis has affected the globe is the onset and havoc played by the COVID-19 pandemic in the last few years.

Apart from that the climatic changes and other conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war have also led to food and nutrition crises globally. The rise in the cost of fertilizer products globally has also threatened future agricultural harvests.

Solutions to fight malnutrition and nutrition crisis

International communities and groups have been trying to fight the malnutrition problem amid the nutrition crisis by implementing a few strategies. The global units dedicated to the task of solving the malnutrition problem have started nutrition surveillance for identifying and mapping the worst affected areas to target food and take nutrition actions.

More budgets are being allocated so that nutritious foods are safeguarded and their production is increased. The UN Food Systems Summits is trying to establish multi-sector coordination and links with associated groups. To reduce the price of nutritional foods and make them affordable in areas with populations suffering more from malnutrition countries have been encouraged to offer subsidies and tax exemptions in fuel, food, agriculture, and fertilizer.

The leading communities and global bodies associated with the surveillance of malnutrition are also monitoring market food prices and the availability of adequate nutritional food items. Some other steps that are expected to make a big difference are diversification of food products, increased awareness, promotion of production of native produce and consumption of local foods, encouragement of the use of climate-smart agriculture techniques, and reduction of wastage and food loss.

Training is being arranged for agricultural producers so that they are made aware of harvesting a wider range of crops and using alternative agricultural inputs. Feeding malnourished school children through special programs and protecting their health using various social protection mechanisms is also expected to help in solving the malnutrition problem globally.