Student submission by Vedant Gadhavi 

This article will give a key insight over the sustainable development goal of achieving zero hunger by focusing on reducing waste and employing sustainable food  production. Studies have revealed that there have been around 691-783 million  people who have faced hunger crisis. There has been a significant rise in hunger  compared to the COVID-19 pandemic (1). People have not been able to access  healthy food and that has led to millions of children suffering from malnutrition. Government and policymakers must understand the trends to ensure proper shape  of agrifood systems to every citizen living in rural and urban areas. Food security  should be taken as the key factor to solve this issue because there is prevalence of  child stunting in rural areas by 35.8% alongside 22.4% in urban areas (2). It is vital to  achieve food security because food security not only includes the physical availability  and access to the food but also includes stable utilization of nutrients in the body  from the food (3).  

We can achieve this goal by 2030, by implementing advanced technologies that  increase productivity and production. This will be achieved through extensive  research across various disciplines of science to accelerate the production using  new technologies (4). To achieve the goal, it becomes essential to ensure  sustainable food production systems. As rising temperatures have been a  fundamental factor in producing a negative effect on agricultural sector (5). It becomes vital to strengthen the capacity of the crop to adapt and withstand extreme  weather conditions. This will make sure that the production of crops is efficient will solve the root cause of the problem and solve hunger issues in the world. This will also be helpful in keeping a check over agricultural prices and avoid inflation  because food price inflation has exceeded overall inflation in 62.9% of the 167  countries as per the available data reported (6).

 There has been 13% of food produced being lost between harvest and retail as well  as around 17% of total food is being wasted in households (7). The most promising  step towards reducing food hunger is to limit food loses and waste. This can be done  through using intelligent packing of food to reduce food waste which can feed an  additional billion people globally. There should be openings of new food donation  centres to avoid food wastage as well making “best before” labels easily seen and  less confusing. These practices will make sure to eliminate food wastage and  provide access of food for all. These steps will turn out to be impactful against the  ongoing food hunger crisis and will be a positive change towards  attaining zero hunger.

REFERENCES: 

1. 122 million more people pushed into hunger since 2019 due to multiple crises, reveals UN  report [Internet]. www.who.int. Available from: https://www.who.int/news/item/12-07- 2023-122-million-more-people-pushed-into-hunger-since-2019-due-to-multiple-crises– reveals-un-report#:~:text=The%202023%20edition%20of%20the 
2. 122 million more people pushed into hunger Since 2019 [Accessed on March 20,2024].  World Food Program USA. [cited 2024 Mar 22]. Available from:  https://www.wfpusa.org/news-release/2023-sofi-report-122-million-more-people-pushed into-hunger-since-2019/ 
3. Ayala A, Meier BM. A human rights approach to the health implications of food and  nutrition insecurity. Public Health Reviews [Accessed on March 19,2024]. 2017 Mar 9;38(1).  Available from: https://publichealthreviews.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40985- 017-0056-5 
4. McConnell LL, Osorio C, Hofmann T. The Future of Agriculture and Food: Sustainable  Approaches to Achieve Zero Hunger. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2023 Aug  29;71(36):13165–7. 
5. Ashraf J, Jun M, Ali S, Ghufran M, Xiaobao P. Zero-hunger through the lens of food security  in populous Asia: pre and post-pandemic. Front Sustain Food Syst [Accessed on March 21,  2024]. 2024;8. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2024.1210385 
6. World Bank. Food security update [Accessed on March 21,2024]. World Bank. World Bank;  2023. Available from: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture/brief/food-security update
7. foodnavigator.com. Closing the harvest-to-retail-to-household food waste gap [Accessed  on March 21, 2024]. foodnavigator.com. 2023 [cited 2024 Mar 22]. Available from:  https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2023/12/14/closing-the-harvest-to-retail-to household-food-waste-gap#:~:text=Globally%2C%20approximately%2013%25%20of%20the