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Rome - The number of people in the world without enough to eat fell to 805 million in 2012-14, down from over a billion in 1990-92, three United Nations agencies dealing with nutrition issues said in a joint report on Tuesday.
The figures "confirmed a positive trend which has seen the number of hungry people decline globally by more than 100 million over the last decade and by more than 200 million since 1990-92," the 2014 edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World said.
In 2000, the international community adopted the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including a commitment to halve the proportion of hungry people in the world in the period from 1990 to 2015.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said this was now within reach "if appropriate and immediate efforts are stepped up".
Highest undernourishment rates
The MDG hunger goal has already been met in East and South East Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean, they said. The Caucasus and Central Asia should make it by next year, while sub-Saharan Africa and Southern and Western Asia were said to be lagging behind.
Singling out the efforts of seven countries - Bolivia, Brazil, Haiti, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malawi and Yemen - FAO, IFAD and WFP said "accelerated, substantial and sustainable hunger reduction is possible with the requisite political commitment".
In 1990-92, 23.4% of the population in developing countries -equal to 1.01 billion - was hungry. In 2012-14, the proportion had fallen to 13.5%, and was projected to drop to 12.8% in 2015, against an MDG target of 11.7%.
The regions with the highest undernourishment rates were listed as Sub-Saharan Africa (23.8%), the Caribbean (20.1%) and Southern Asia (15.8%). FAO, IFAD and WFP said 65% of the hungry lived in Asia, the world's most populous continent.
