GS Paper 2
Syllabus: Issues relating to Poverty and Hunger
Source: DTE
Context: According to a special report by the IPES-Food, at least 21 countries were nearing catastrophic levels of both debt distress and rising hunger in 2022.
International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food): Since 2015, this diverse and independent panel of experts has uniquely shaped the debate on global food systems reform, through policy-oriented research and direct engagement with policy processes.
Highlights of the report – ‘Breaking the cycle of unsustainable food systems, hunger and debt’:
- Global public debt was at its highest levels in almost 60 years and countries were having to choose between repaying debts and feeding people.
- 21 countries (including Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Sri Lanka) were nearing catastrophic levels of both debt distress and rising hunger.
- This is even when record-high food prices have receded currently, a year after Russia’s war on Ukraine.
- About 60% of low-income countries and 30% of middle-income countries were considered at high risk of debt distress.
- The world’s poorest countries saw the costs of servicing their debt increase by 35% in 2022.
- They paid 47% of external debt payments to private lenders, 12% to China, 14% to other governments and the remaining to multilateral institutions like the IMF.
On India:
- Several countries are now stuck in what has been described as a ‘fertilizer trap’: India (with $26 billion budgeted in 2022), Kenya, and the Philippines are among a host of governments ramping up fertilizer subsidies in the face of the crisis, alongside rising fuel import costs.
Success case study:
Natural farming (Andhra Pradesh): In contrast to Sri Lanka’s botched top-down organic transition, the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has engaged some 620,000 farmers in a sequenced transition to chemical-free, ‘natural farming’, with initial data suggesting higher household incomes, yield increases, cost savings, improved quality of soils and crops, as well as reduced stress and better health.
Reasons behind this crisis:
- Import dependencies (Africa’s food import dependency has tripled → food price spikes), extractive financial flows, boom-bust commodity cycles and unsustainable/climate-vulnerable food systems.
- Higher costs for imports and debt repayments.
- This required them to earn dollars via crop exports (to pay down their debts) rather than meeting local food needs.
How will this impact countries?
- A debt crisis could plunge millions more into hunger, and poverty
- Reversing decades of progress and sparking further instability and conflict
Way ahead:
- The report called for urgent action to provide debt relief and development finance on a scale to meet the needs of
- COVID-19 recovery,
- Climate-resilient food systems and
- Sustainable development goals (SDGs).
- It also urged policymakers to repair historical injustices that have left countries funnelling profits and exports to the global North.
- For this, windfall taxes on food profiteers and steps to achieve tax justice, and climate justice are needed as soon as possible.
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