UN agencies say 1/8 people worldwide going hungry

 UN agencies say 1/8 people worldwide going hungry:

                             
● UN Food Insecurity Report

One in eight people around the world is chronically undernourished, food agencies at the United Nations have said. In their latest report on food insecurity, the UN agencies estimated that 842 million people were suffering chronic hunger in 2011-13, 12% of the world's population. The new figure was lower than the last estimate of 868m in 2010-12 and 1.02bn in 2009.

● AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center, previously known as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center, is an international, nonprofit institute for vegetable research and development. It was "founded in 1971 in Shanhua, southern Taiwan, by the Asian Development Bank, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam."

These countries wished for the AVRDC to become the "facilitator" for the Collaborative Vegetable Research Network for Southeast Asia, which was to work toward completing various projects that the founding nations put forth. Overall, the main goal of this continues to be to "reduce malnutrition and alleviate poverty in developing nations through improving production and consumption of vegetables."

                                    
The use of vegetables as crops that are of high worth is important in the "Millennium Development Goals" of the United Nations Development Program and the AVRDC. The vegetables made by the AVRDC can be used in poorer areas, where they can serve as "an important source of income" and can help fight micronutrient deficiencies.

The Center’s current crop portfolio focuses on four groups of globally important vegetables, according to the AVRDC:
• solanaceous crops: (tomato, sweet pepper, chili pepper, eggplant)
•  bulb alliums (onion, shallot, garlic)
• crucifers (cabbage, Chinese cabbage)
• cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae): (cucumbers, pumpkins)

Indigenous vegetables, particularly those of Asia and Africa are another focus of research at AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center. Indigenous vegetables are domesticated or semi-wild vegetable crops that are grown in particular regions as an integral part of a local food system. Many of them are underutilized crops, particularly in regions where they are not native.

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