World Hunger Will Almost Halve By 2030

The number of chronically hungry people in the world is set to fall from 776 million now to 440 million in 2030, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. But instead of halving by 2015 --- the goal adopted by the 1996 World Food Summit --- the number of the undernourished will fall only by 11 per cent by that time.

These are the predictions of a detailed model of world food trends published on Tuesday by the FAO. It concludes global grain production will have to rise every year by 1.2 per cent to meet the demand for food and feed.

The FAO says yields can grow through more intense crop production, more harvests per year --- mainly made possible by more irrigation --- and new technology in areas where land and water are scarce, such as farming with less ploughing.

The introduction of genetically-modified crops is not critical, says the FAO report: “Agricultural production could probably meet expected demand until 2030 even without major advances in modern biotechnology.”

But if the technology is “affordable and geared towards the needs of the poor”, specially engineered crops could help dry, acid, waterlogged or salt-infested soils grow more.

There are important exceptions to the FAO’s good news on hunger reductions. In south Asia and, especially, Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty will continue to grow, and  the number of chronically undernourished people in Africa will only have fallen marginally by 2030, from 194 million to 183 million people.

Category:        Environment
Source:           Adapted from: New Scientist, March 4, 2003
Words:           251

参考答案：

到2030年全球饥民人数将减少近半
 联合国粮食与农业组织(the UN Food and Agriculture Organization)指出，将使全球长期处于饥饿状态的人从目前的7.76亿降至2030年的4.4亿。但是，到2015年，营养不良者的人数将仅减少百分之十一，而不能达到1996年世界粮食峰会所制定的减少一半的目标。
 这些预测是联合国粮农组织（简称粮农组织FAO）在星期二发表的一份分析世界粮食发展趋势具体模式的报告中提出来的。该报告总结认为，全球粮食生产需要每年增长百分之一点二才能满足对粮食和饲料的需求。
 粮农组织指出，可以通过以下方法提高产量：生产更多的精耕细做、通过进行更多的灌溉这一主要方式达到每年有更多的收成、以及在缺乏土地和水的地方采用像只需要少量犁地即可耕种那样的新技术。
 粮农组织的报告认为，引进基因改造作物并不重要。该报告说：“在2030年之前，即使现代生物技术没有重大进展，农业生产也很可能会满足预期的需求。“
 但是，如果生物技术是“经济可行的，并且面向穷人的需要”，那么，特殊工程作物将有助于旱地、水洼地、盐渍地或者酸性土地长出更多粮食。
 粮农组织有关饥民减少的好消息里也有一些例外情况很重要。在南亚以及在撒哈拉以南的非洲地区，贫困将持续发展。到2030年，非洲长期营养不良者的人数将只有少量减少，由1.94亿降至1.83亿。

There are important exceptions to the FAO’s good news on hunger reductions. In south Asia and, especially, Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty will continue to grow, and  the number of chronically undernourished people in Africa will only have fallen marginally by 2030, from 194 million to 183 million people.

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