A note released from FAO points out that, with these funds, ‘almost 49 million people could produce their own food and get out of acute food insecurity’.

The appeal emphasizes that the number of people in catastrophic hunger conditions, in phase five of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), have risen from 705 thousand people in five countries/territories in 2023, to 1.9 million in mid-2024, in Gaza, Haiti, Mali, South Sudan and Sudan.

The document also states that globally, the immediate future is deeply worrying, and there is no sign that the main drivers of acute hunger, such as conflicts, climate extremes and economic crises, will subside by 2025.

Beth Bechdol, FAO assistant director-general, said, “Emergency agricultural assistance is a lifeline and offers a way out of hunger, even in the midst of violence and climate crises.

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