Jan 24 (Reuters) - The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation on Wednesday urged reforms of the international food aid system to keep the long-term campaign against world hunger in focus and use food relief for emergencies.
Following are some facts about global hunger and aid from the FAO's report on the state of food and agriculture in 2006:
MILLIONS OF HUNGRY PEOPLE
* About 854 million people in the world lacked sufficient food to lead active and healthy lives in 2001-2003, of whom 820 million lived in poor countries, 25 million in countries with transitional economies and 9 million in developed market economies.
* More than 90 percent of all under-nourished people are chronically hungry.
* About 61 percent of all under-nourished people live in Asia and the Pacific region and 24 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, where 32 percent of the population is under-nourished.
* If all food aid was equally distributed among the world's hungry, it would provide less than 12 kg per person.
FOOD EMERGENCIES
* 39 countries throughout the world faced serious food shortages as of May 2006 -- 24 in Africa, nine in Asia, five in Latin America and one in Europe -- hit by civil strife, bad weather and in some countries the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
* Human-induced induced disasters -- wars, conflicts, economic failures -- caused 48 percent of food emergencies in 1997-206, against 41 percent in 1986-1996.
* Over 1986-2006, 12 countries suffered emergencies during 15 or more years, mostly hit by war or civil strife.
FOOD AID VOLUMES
* In recent years, food aid has averaged about 10 million tonnes per year, worth about $2 billion; cereals account for the largest and most variable component of total food aid.
* Food aid had dropped to less than 3 percent of total world cereals trade in recent years from about 10 percent in the 1970s but still accounted for 5-10 percent of net food imports in recipient countries.
* Total food aid shipments in 2005/2006 were estimated at 8.7 million tonnes, wheat equivalent, unchanged from the previous season.
((Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova))
