Malnutrition in LatAm to dip below 5 pct by 2025: report

Malnutrition in Latin America appears headed to dip below the 5-percent threshold over the next decade, experts said during the presentation of a report here on Wednesday.

The report, titled "Agricultural Outlook 2016-2025", was compiled by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

"A more rapid rise in income and improved agricultural productivity will speed up the reduction, but the key is better access (to nutrition) among the poor," said Roberto Martinez, the OECD's director in Mexico.

"It is a problem of distribution. It is a problem of inclusion, especially in emerging economies with lower income," he added.

The report calls on regional countries to apply new technologies in the agricultural sector to boost efficiency and production.

Malnutrition rates worldwide are expected to fall, from 11 percent to 8 percent, except in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the rate will remain at an elevated 19 percent.

Despite the downward trend, some 638 million people around the world will still suffer from malnutrition in 2025, said Martinez.

According to the FAO, malnutrition affects 5.5 percent of the population in Latin America.

Fernando Soto, the FAO's representative in Mexico, said that despite the projected decrease in malnutrition, food production nevertheless faces a major challenge.

"The main challenge the agricultural production system will face by 2025 will be how to produce more than 5 billion tons of food, but with less water, much less soil and less biodiversity, and the unpredictable consequences and uncertainties of climate change," said Soto.

One key way to bolster agricultural production, he said, is to strengthen family farming, which in Latin America alone represents more than 80 percent of the region's productive farms and generates up to 67 percent of its food. Endi