India Home to 194 Million Hungry People—Highest Number Globally

Hungry: 795 million people, or one in nine—UN Hunger Report

India is home to the highest number of hungry people in the world, at 194 million, surpassing China, says the United Nations annual hunger report.

The number of hungry people in China are 133.8 million in 2014-15, says the report.

Countries with more than 40 percent of the populations undernourished:

Zambia: 7.4 million people or 47.8 % of the population
Central African Republic: 2.3 million or 47.7 %
Namibia: 1 million or 42.3 %
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: 10.5 million or 41.6 %

The number of hungry people globally has declined from about 1 billion 1990 to about 795 million this year, despite a surge in population growth, according to the report.

However, the Moderators were unable to independently verify the figures in the United Nations’ annual hunger report, which is published jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Program.

Crop Disasters Declared in Nevada, Utah

Drought destroys more crops in 11 areas across two states

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 11 additional areas (10 counties and Carson City) across two states—Nevada and Utah—as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by ongoing drought.

Crop disasters have  occurred in the following areas:

• Nevada.  Storey, Lyon, Lincoln, Washoe counties and Carson City.
• Utah. Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Millard, Piute and Sevier counties.

Crop Disasters 2015

Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least an 1,209 counties (and county-equivalent areas) across 20 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

Majority of the 2015 crop disaster designations so far are due to drought.

Crop Disasters 2014

In 2014, USDA declared crop disasters in at least 2,904 counties across 44 states. Most of the designations were due to drought.

Those states were:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan. Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. [FIRE-EARTH has documented all of the above listings. See blog content.]

Notes:
i. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.

ii. The counties designated as agricultural disaster areas, as listed above, include both primary and contiguous disaster areas.

iii. Some counties may have been designated as crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.

iv. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.

v. The disaster designations posted above were approved by USDA on May 27, 2015 and posted on their website as two separate declarations.

Related Links

• Crop Disasters Declared in 4 States  May 21, 2015
• Drought Destroys More Crops in CO, ID, OR, TX, UT May 14, 2015
• Drought Destroys more Crops in ID, NV, OR, UT May 7, 2015
• Federal Disasters
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index