The world is at serious risk of a food-access crisis, the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), has warned.

QU Dongyu explained that the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain interruptions, rising commodity prices, conflicts and humanitarian crises are threatening the functioning of the global agri-food system.

“We are at serious risk of facing a food access crisis now, and probably a food availability crisis for the next season.

"All this has put at risk our efforts to achieve the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

The HLPF is the main UN platform to review the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs.

The FAO director-general told the international community that the following measures are needed to address the current situation:

"We only have eight years before our agreed timeline to implement the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. We have no time to lose," Qu stated.

He noted that the cumulative loss to the global economy due to the pandemic and conflict in 2020 and 2021 was $12 trillion.

Along with the need for timely distribution of food aid, the FAO has advocated for more emphasis to be placed on producing nutritious food locally.

Only 8% of all food security funding in emergencies goes to help agricultural production.

However, investing in agriculture and rural livelihoods is up to 10 times more cost-effective than traditional assistance.

Qu also spoke of the need to ensure better and more efficient use of available outputs and inputs, citing the examples of global water stress, food loss and waste, and using fertiliser more efficiently.

Around one billion hectares of land face severe water constraints and almost 800 million hectares of land for crops and pasture are severely affected by recurring drought.

Current levels of food lost and wasted could feed around 1.26 billion people per year, the FAO director-general stated.