World Food Day (16 October) is being marked this year amid a United Nations warning of an unprecedented disaster for food security and fears of a sharp rise in food prices worldwide.

"About half a million people in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen are living in famine-like conditions. In recent months vulnerable populations in Burkina Faso and Nigeria have also faced almost the same situation," the UN said in a statement.

The organisation has called for funds to be raised quickly to help at least 40 million people living in such famine-like conditions.

According to The Hunger Project, a US-based charity, about 690 million people around the world live in severe poverty, and 850 million are at risk of poverty because of Covid. Sixty per cent of them are women.

Here we look at what high food prices mean for these people around the world and what alternatives exist to reduce food poverty. But first: why are food prices rising?

Kraft Heinz, a large international food company, has warned that because of the post-pandemic situation and inflation, people "will have to adjust to high food prices".

Dr Sarika Kulkarni, founder and trustee of the Raah Foundation in Mumbai, India, agrees with Kraft Heinz chief Miguel Patricio that food prices will stay high. Dr Kulkarni and the Raah Foundation work together to improve the living standards of India's small ethnic communities.

Because of the pandemic, production of raw materials, from grains to edible oils, has fallen in many countries. This has been caused mainly by the measures taken to control the coronavirus, along with illness, low production and distribution problems.

As supply of such goods restarts in economies, many producers may not be able to keep up with growing demand, which is contributing to higher prices.

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.