Agricultural aid might provide a long-term solution to the root causes of acute malnutrition, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General.

The recommendation came as the organization released its annual Global Report on Food Crisis on Wednesday, showing malnutrition and food insecurity numbers are still higher than before COVID-19.

Director-General Qu Dongyu said, “hard-won development gains are being reversed” as food insecurity and malnutrition become a “new normal” in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He emphasized that 36 researched countries have been featured in the Global Report on Food Crisis (GRFC) since 2017, reflecting continuing years of acute hunger, and currently representing 80 percent of the world’s most hungry.  

FAO’s eighth edition of the report found 282 million people in 59 countries and territories faced acute food insecurity in 2023, mainly resulting from economic shocks due to high domestic food prices, weather extremes, and conflict insecurity. 

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Conflict insecurity was the major driver of high acute food insecurity in 20 countries and territories, and the major reason why the 2024 outlook remains bleak in places like Palestine, Sudan and Haiti.

Using the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the Cadre Harmonisé (CH), FAO indicators show food insecurity escalated alarmingly in 2023, especially in Palestine (Gaza Strip), which became the most severe food crisis in IPC and GRFC history. 

A major driver was also weather impacts, including the effects of El Niño. While beneficial for certain parts of East Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the weather cycle also created climate havoc, including flooding, heavy rains and drought in other parts of East and South Africa, especially Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

El Niño pushes warm water east towards the West Coast of the Americas, causing dryer and warmer weather in the Northern U.S. and Canada and wetter periods in the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southeast. 

A way to address the malnutrition issue, according to the Director-General, is tackling the root causes of hunger by providing agricultural assistance. Although a slower-acting approach, he said it would address bigger, long-term problems. 

“Providing seeds, tools and livestock and the means to restart food production at scale is often the most cost-effective way to assure that food reaches the greatest number of people in hard-to-reach areas,” Dongyu said.