The world economic crisis directly translates to food insecurity. According to the Food Security Assessment, 2008-09, a report from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), “Food security in 70 developing countries is projected to deteriorate over the next decade. After rising nearly 11 percent from 2007 to 2008, the number of food-insecure people in the developing countries is estimated to rise to 833 million in 2009, an almost 2-percent rise from 2008 to 2009. Despite a decline in food prices in late 2008, deteriorating purchasing power and food security are expected in 2009 because of the growing financial deficits and higher inflation that have occurred in recent years. Food-insecure people are defined as those consuming less than the nutritional target of 2,100 calories per day per person.”

The study warns that the continued rise in food prices is putting millions of people on the brink of extreme poverty. The document emphasizes that the people of sub-Saharan Africa remain the most vulnerable.

More than eighty million people have become at-risk population due to food shortages throughout the year as a result of the crisis caused by skyrocketing prices of essential goods. According to the ERS study of the USDA, a worsening situation is anticipated in 2009 where the at-risk population could reach 833 million people.

The document reveals that the trade deficit generated by the food crisis of 2008 that slowed down productivity mixed with political instability in the countries surveyed only make it more difficult for poor countries to overcome the dire economic situation.

The case of sub-Saharan Africa is particularly acute. It holds 25 percent of the total population of the seventy countries studied, but more than half of the total population at risk of food shortage. Furthermore, the region is increasingly dependent on imports of cereal.

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Via USDA ERS