“The key to better nutrition, and ultimately to ensuring each person’s right to food, lies in better food systems – smarter approaches, policies and investments encompassing the environment, people, institutions and processes by which agricultural products are produced, processed and brought to consumers in a sustainable manner,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day.

“Every day, more than 840 million people go hungry in a world of plenty. This fact alone should be cause for moral outrage and concerted action.”

The theme of this year’s Day, which is celebrated on 16 October in honour of the date of the founding of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945, is “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition.”

A food system is made up of the environment, people, institutions and processes by which agricultural products are produced, processed and brought to consumers. Every aspect of the food system has an effect on the final availability and accessibility of diverse, nutritious foods – and therefore on consumers’ ability to choose healthy diets. However, policies and interventions on food systems are rarely designed with nutrition as their primary objective.

“Addressing malnutrition requires integrated action and complementary interventions in agriculture and the food system, in natural resource management, in public health and education, and in broader policy domains,” FAO said.

The World Food Programme (WFP) stressed that understanding food systems and ending malnutrition can transform individuals, societies and economies, and is central to all development efforts.

“Prioritizing nutrition today is an investment in our collective global future. The investment must involve food, agriculture, health and education systems,” said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin.

In addition to the 840 million people suffering from chronic hunger, there are some 2 billion people who lack the vitamins and minerals needed to live healthy lives. Poor nutrition also means some 1.4 billion people are overweight, with about one-third obese and at risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes or other health problems.

WFP noted that if the global community invested $1.2 billion per year for five years on reducing micronutrient deficiencies, the benefits in better health, fewer child deaths and increased future earnings would generate gains worth $15.3 billion.

The Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figueres stressed that food systems are closely linked to climate change as the latter is making it harder to feed a growing population.

“Aside from permanent shifts in climatic conditions which will affect farming, climate change is causing more and more extreme weather, for example tropical storms, floods and droughts which can push subsistence farmers and others living in food insecurity into dire circumstances,” she said.

“If we are to sustainably feed the world’s population in the future we need to see action today that prepares farmers around the world for the impacts of climate change.”

To mark the Day, FAO will be holding events all week at its headquarters in Rome and around the world on the importance of food systems for food security and nutrition.

Today it will hold a plenary hall with various UN agency officials as well as a high-level seminar on global food losses and waste, and on Thursday a special ceremony will be held to mark the culmination of the International Year of Quinoa, with Nadine Heredia Alarcón de Humala, First Lady of Peru and Special Ambassador for the Year in attendance.

On Sunday FAO will hold the Hunger Run 2013 in central Rome, a 10 kilometre competitive run and a five kilometre non-competitive run/walk to raise funds an anti-hunger field project in the Northern State of Sudan.

The Rome-based agency said its Food Price Index averaged 205.9 points in July, which is 4 points below June and 7 points lower than in July 2012. The Index measures monthly changes in international prices of a basket of meat, dairy, cereals, oils and fats, and sugar.

The FAO Cereal Price Index averaged 227.7 points in July, down 8.8 points from June and as much as 33 points below July last year. “The sharp decline mostly reflected falling maize prices as favourable weather boosted hopes of a significant production increase in several leading maize-producing countries,” said the agency.

Wheat prices also fell but the strong pace of exports limited the decline. Rice price changes varied according to origins, with a decrease in Thai prices contrasting with higher Vietnamese quotations.

The FAO Oils/Fats Price Index averaged 191 points in July, down by 7 points from June and the lowest level in three years. Meanwhile, while dairy prices fell overall – 2.6 per cent from June – the decline was by a smaller margin than in the previous two months as a result of tightening availabilities in Oceania and stagnating milk production amongst other exporters, principally in Europe, South America and the United States.

Meat prices, FAO noted, were more or less unchanged from the revised June level. Prices for poultry and pig meat were lower, while those of bovine and ovine meat rose.

In addition, sugar prices declined for the fourth consecutive month in July, on the back of anticipated large surplus production in major producing areas, notably in Brazil, the world’s largest sugar producer and exporter.

Declining ethanol prices in Brazil also provided an incentive to convert more sugarcane into sugar instead of ethanol, which put additional downward pressure on international sugar prices, FAO stated.

“Policy interventions that aim at encouraging greater levels of smallholder production for sale in markets need to take better account of the heterogeneity of smallholder households,” said David Hallam, Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Trade and Markets Division.

In the foreword to the report, Smallholder Integration in Changing Food Markets, Hallam added that just as smallholders are a heterogeneous group, the markets in which they participate are also diverse in terms of their size, geographic location, connectivity to other markets, power relations between market players, and institutional setting.

The report notes that with greater market integration and more inclusive value chains, small farmers are more likely to adopt new technologies required to achieve productivity growth.

Stressing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, the two main ways to link farmers with markets is to provide them with better access to credit and insurance, and to strengthen the links between farmers and buyers.

Farmers will not expend more time, money and energy in producing more, if any surplus will likely go to waste because there is no storage, no transport or, possibly, no market within a reasonable distance, Hallam said.

“The risk that any money spent to produce more will be lost is too great a risk for poor farmers to run,” he added.

The report also notes a paradox of high food prices. Seen by some policymakers as an opportunity for farmers to produce more and earn more, the response by many farmers has been muted.

“High levels of price, production risks and uncertainty, and limited access to tools to manage them deter investment in more productive new technologies that would enable smallholders to produce surpluses for sale in markets,” according to the report.

It also highlights the negative consequence of inadequate infrastructure, high costs of storage and transportation, and non-competitive markets.

In addition to more tailored policies, the report also highlights the role of the public sectors and international development partners to promote better policies for small farmers.

The biannual Food Outlook published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that countries are estimated to spend $1.09 trillion to import food this year, hovering near last year’s level but 13 per cent below the record in 2011.

The greatest changes to the import bill costs of importing animal-protein products, which includes meat, dairy and fish, may increase as much as eight per cent to around $543 billion, dependent on larger volumes of imports as well as prices, particularly for dairy products and fish.

These increases to the bill could likely be offset by anticipated lower international prices for sugar and vegetable oils, as well as on beverages such as coffee, tea and cocoa.

The UN food agency said its Global Food Consumption Price Index has registered little movement since the end of last year, in contrast to the volatility of earlier months.

Meanwhile, record harvest prices are due to force global grain prices lower, the agency predicted, balancing out trade.

Cereal harvests forecast is expected to surge to a record 2,460 million tonnes in 2013, pointing to “a more comfortable” cereal supply-and-demand balance in the new season, according to the report.

This year’s forecasted cereal production could be 6.5 per cent up from last year’s reduced level, FAO reported, supported by higher global wheat output, rice production, and a sharp expected rebound in maize harvests and use, particularly for feed and industrial purposes, in the United States.

“Based on current supply and demand prospects, by 2014, world cereal inventories could register an 11 per cent recover to 569 million tonnes, the highest level in 12 years,” the report cited.

The resulting world trade in cereals is expected to reach 306 million tonnes, similar to this season’s level.

Also, global fish production is likely to reach a new record level in 2013 topping 160 million tonnes for the first time, as world fish prices continue to rise.

“Buoyant demand in developing countries for has driven world aquaculture production to new heights,” authors of the report said, adding that consumption is down in the traditional markets.

Fish for direct human consumption will also increase significantly during 2013 as a smaller share of captures is destined for fish meal production. On a per capita basis, global fish consumption is approaching 20 kg a year. Prices on a number of farmed species, such as salmon, shrimp and selected bivalves, have risen sharply, according to the report.

Demand for meat production is expected to grow more in developing countries, with the global outlook remaining modest. Meat prices have been historically high since early 2011.

World meat production is forecast at 308.2 million tonnes in 2013, a modest increase of 4.3 million tonnes, or 1.4 percent on 2012. While producers in many countries continue to face high feed prices, these started falling in 2012, and could further diminish in 2013.

World trade in dairy is expected to expand, but not by much due to limited supply. International prices of dairy products registered strong growth during the first four months of 2013, particularly in March and April, and high prices are expected for the next few months. The main cause of the price surge was a steep fall-off in New Zealand’s milk production.

Sugar production is expected to rise in 2012-2013 by 2.8 percent to 190 million tonnes, surpassing consumption for a second consecutive season. The surplus is likely to hover around 6.5 million tonnes. Increased production in Brazil, United States, Australia and China is anticipated to offset declines in India, the EU and Thailand.

This year’s Food Outlook has a special report on quinoa, coinciding with 2013 having been declared the International Year of Quinoa by the UN General Assembly.

“World demand is expected to keep growing vigorously in the coming years, driven primarily by developed countries, where expenditure on healthier and natural foods is on an upward trend,” the report said.

In a message marking the launch of The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA), Director-General José Graziano da Silva said that although the world has registered some progress on hunger, one form of malnutrition, there was still “a long way” to go.

“FAO’s message is that we must strive for nothing less than the eradication of hunger and malnutrition,” he declared.

The report notes that while some 870 million people were still hungry in 2010-2012, this is just a fraction of the billions of people whose health, well-being and lives are blighted by malnutrition.

Two billion people suffer from one or more micronutrient deficiencies, while 1.4 billion are overweight, of whom 500 million are obese, according to the report, which adds that 26 per cent of all children under five are stunted and 31 per cent suffer from Vitamin A deficiency.

FAO states in a news release that vitamin and micronutrients deficiency together with obesity and overweight, costs to the world economy in lost productivity and health care are “unacceptably high” and could account for as much as 5 per cent of the global gross domestic product – $3.5 trillion, or $500 per person.

“That is almost the entire annual GDP of Germany, Europe’s largest economy,” the agency points out.

FAO notes that, in social terms, child and maternal malnutrition continue to reduce the quality of life and life expectancy of millions of people, while obesity-related health problems, such as heart disease and diabetes, affect millions more.

The key to combating malnutrition is healthy diets and good nutrition – which must start with food and agriculture, stresses FAO. “The way we grow, raise, process, transport and distribute food influences what we eat,” it says, adding that improved food systems can make food more affordable, diverse and nutritious.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including using appropriate agricultural policies, investment and research to increase productivity; cutting food losses and waste, which currently amount to one third of the food produced for human consumption every year; and helping consumers make good dietary choices for better nutrition through education, information and other actions.

Among other recommendations is to make food systems more responsive to the needs of mothers and young children. FAO notes that malnutrition during the critical ‘first 1,000 days’ from conception can cause lasting damage to women’s health and life-long physical and cognitive impairment in children.

The agency cites several projects that have proved successful in raising nutrition levels such as the promotion of home gardens in West Africa; encouragement of mixed vegetable and animal farming systems together with income-generating activities in some Asian countries; and public-private partnerships to enrich products like yoghurt or cooking oil with nutrients.

Making food systems enhance nutrition is a complex task, the report points out, adding that it requires strong political commitment and leadership at the highest levels, broad-based partnerships and coordinated approaches with other important sectors such as health and education.

“Food systems governance that is providing leadership, coordinating effectively and fostering collaboration among the many stakeholders is a first priority,” it says.

“Slow Food and FAO share the same vision of a sustainable and hunger-free world, safeguarding biodiversity for future generations,” said FAO, Director-General José Graziano da Silva, signing a three-year Memo of Understanding with Slow Food. “The agreement, providing for a number of important joint initiatives, brings us a step closer to that objective.”

Under the agreement, FAO and Slow Food will join forces “to promote more inclusive food and agricultural systems at local, national and international levels,” according to a news release the Rome-based agency sent today.

The project, which can help conserve the use of neglected crops, and reduce food losses and waste, can also help produce inventories of local, indigenous and underutilized species that are potentially important to food security, the UN agency noted.

The collaboration will also focus on adding value to animal products and boosting incomes for farmers and others in the food chain, as well as providing better access to markets for small farmers by strengthening producers’ organizations and cooperatives.

The new agreement will build on projects FAO already has underway, including the Hunger-Free Africa initiative grouping FAO, African Union and Brazil’s Instituto Lula to eradicate hunger from the continent starting with four countries – Angola, Ethiopia, Malawi and Niger.

Another possible area for collaboration is support to rural women through the ongoing Dimitra project run by FAO, the European Commission and Belgium. This participatory information and communication project highlights women’s key role in food production so that their interests are better taken into consideration.

According to the news release, FAO is also looking into the possible development of toolkits for the international Education of Rural People (ERP) Partnership, which aims to remove existing constraints and ensure education and skills training for all rural people.

FAO’s Food Price Index – which measures monthly changes in international prices of a basket of meat, dairy, cereals, oils and fats, and sugar – rose two points to 215.5 in April, up one per cent from March.

The slight boost was driven mainly by a spike in dairy prices which indexed an averaged 259 points in April, up nearly 34 points or almost 15 per cent from March. The change is due mainly to a lull in milk production in New Zealand, the world’s largest producer.

The FAO Cereal Price Index slipped 10 points or 4.1 percent in April to 235 points, but it still 11 points higher than in April 2012.

The rising trend for cereals is forecasted to last throughout the year, barring unusual weather conditions. Coarse grain production is expected to set a new record at 1.266 million tonnes, up 9.3 per cent from the 2011 high of 1.167 million, according to the May issue of FAO’s ‘Cereals Supply and Demand Brief.’

The Rome-based agency predicts that global wheat production will reach 695 million tonnes, up 5.4 per cent from last year’s harvest and just short of the 672 million record level in 2011.

Production of maize in the United States and recovery from drought in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is expected to drive this year’s harvest to about 960 million tonnes, about 10 per cent higher than in 2012. The US, the world’s largest maize producer, is expected to plant the largest area of maize since their highest level in 1936.

Still tentatively, FAO foresees rice production in the forthcoming 2013 season to rise to 497.7 million tonnes, 16 million tonnes more than in 2012, with particularly large increases expected in India and Indonesia.

In addition, prices for oils and fats fell 1.5 per cent, or 2 points, from March. Weakening energy prices and concerns about the global economy continued to weight on the vegetable oil complex, FAO said.

Meat prices averaged 179 points in April, keeping level since the latter part of 2012, but overall higher than the historical standards.

The FAO Sugar Price Index slipped 9 points or 3.6 per cent from March to 353 points in April.

Releasing its latest monthly Food Price Index (FPI), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the dairy component of the index, which carries a 17 per cent weight in the overall calculations, jumped by 22 points to 225, one of the largest recorded changes, due to hot, dry weather in Oceania that has cut into the production of milk and its various by-products.

The dairy prices used in FPI are based on the exports of New Zealand, the world’s largest dairy exporter, accounting for about one third of global trade. Export prices for dairy products have also risen for other important exporters, such as the European Union and the United States, but not to the same degree.

“The exceptional increase is in part a reflection of market uncertainty as buyers seek alternative sources of supply,” FPI reported. “In addition, dairy output in Europe has yet to come fully online after a particularly cold winter, which has delayed pasture growth to feed dairy animals.”

On cereals, FAO’s latest Cereal Supply and Demand Brief, reported an overall positive outlook with wheat crops already well advanced and plantings for rice and coarse grains expected to increase in the coming months owing to attractive prices.

“World cereal production in 2013 could recover strongly barring unfavourable weather in major producing regions,” it said, maintaining its March outlook that global wheat production this year is expected to increase by 4 per cent to 690 million tonnes, the second highest ever after the 700 million tonnes produced in 2011.

The FAO slightly revised the 2012 crop production estimate upward by nearly 3 million tonnes, which now stands 2 per cent lower than the record set in 2011.

“First forecasts for the 2013 wheat harvest point to production increasing to 690 million tonnes – 4.3 per cent up on 2012,” according to FAO’s quarterly ‘Crop Prospects and Food Situation’ report.

“This would be the second largest crop on record,” FAO noted in a press release, below the record harvest of 700 million tonnes in 2011.

The hike is expected mostly in Europe, driven by an expansion in wheat planting areas in response to high prices and a recovery in yields from Russia and some other countries, FAO said.

The outlook in the United States, dampened by earlier drought conditions, has improved somewhat, the UN agency said.

Coarse grains and paddy crops are not yet planted making it too early for even a preliminary global cereal forecast, but FAO expects “generally favourable” prospects for the first 2013 coarse grain crops in the southern hemisphere. Rice prospects are also encouraging in several countries below the equator.

The report also surveyed the food security situations in developing countries, including several hotspots. Of the countries cited, FAO noted that insecurity in northern Mali has disrupted food commodity flows worsening an “already precarious” food situation created by a drought in 2011.

Meanwhile, FAO’s Food Price Index – which measures monthly changes in international prices of a basket of meat, dairy, cereals, oils and fats, and sugar – remained at 210 points for a second straight month.

The FAO Cereal Price Index dropped less than 1 per cent to 245 points in February, but still 8 per cent higher than last year at this time.

Prices for oils and fats averaged 206 points, up 0.4 per cent from January. The rise was driven mainly by palm oil, reflecting the expected seasonal production slowdown and reduction in inventories.

Dairy prices rose five points, or 2.4 per cent, to 203 points. Meat prices averaged 178, the same as in January, with marginally higher pork prices offsetting a slight dip in poultry.

Sugar prices declined for a fourth consecutive month on the expectation of a relatively large world production surplus. The FAO Sugar Price Index averaged 259 in February, down 3 per cent, or 8.6 points, from January.

“In line with the UN Secretary-General’s Zero Hunger Challenge, and in close collaboration with our development partners, we agree that nothing less than the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition is what we should be striving for,” said José Graziano da Silva, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Opening the global consultation on hunger, food security and nutrition in the post-2015 development agenda, held in Rome on Monday, Mr. Graziano da Silva urged the international community to commit to the complete eradication of hunger in setting its development priorities beyond 2015.

Halving the proportion of hungry people in the world by 2015 was among the targets within the eight MDGs. Some 50 countries are on track to achieve this target, the Director-General noted.

Amir Abdulla, Deputy Executive-Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), urged countries to continue to work together to make hunger “the world’s number one solvable problem.”

Meanwhile, Carlos Serè, Chief Development Strategist of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), emphasized that “investing in the sustainable development of rural areas and in inclusive rural growth,” with a focus on smallholder agriculture, is critical for global food security and to the whole post-2015 agenda.

The one-day consultation called for including a focus on nutrition in the post-2015 development agenda, as well as for dealing with the different dimensions of under-nutrition and the fast-growing problems of obesity and related non-communicable diseases, according to a news release issued by FAO.

It also stressed, among other things, that food security and nutrition represent the cornerstone for progress on other development fronts such as employment, education, the environment and health and in achieving a quality future for humankind, the agency reported.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Zero Hunger Challenge, first proposed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil last June, aims for a future where every individual has adequate nutrition. Its five objectives are to make sure that everyone in the world has access to enough nutritious food all year long; to end childhood stunting; to build sustainable food systems; to double the productivity and income of smallholder farmers, especially women; and to prevent food from being lost or wasted.