Providing a crude projection regarding the hunger suffered in the country, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) developed a study to measure food security in the country. Through the collection of data on the subject, the different levels through which Paraguayan families suffer from hunger are determined.
About 25 out of 100 households are forced to lower the quality or quantity of their food, either due to lack of money or resources, while 5 out of 100 households not only reduced the times of the day in which they ate, but they even stop eating for one or several days due to their level of deficiency.
Regarding the last point, this is crucial to understand the reality of food insecurity, since it is closely linked to the situation of poverty. According to the representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Paraguay, Jorge Meza, food insecurity affects 48% of poor households in the country.
Jorge Meza
“Globally, moderate food insecurity reaches 30% of the population, while in Latin America and the Caribbean it reaches 40%. In this context, Paraguay has an impact of 25% and in some way it can be said that the country is better, but in the same way we must continue fighting for total eradication”, considered Meza, because the ideal will always be be in zero impacts of food insecurity in the country.
According to the FAO representative, since food insecurity is one of the many collateral effects of poverty, it could be alleviated minimally through conditional transfers or with programs that generate direct jobs with sufficient income that allow a better level of food safety.
“Structurally, it should be thought that food security is not guaranteed solely by food production, but rather consists of a set of services to be articulated to allow access to institutional assistance,” said the FAO representative.
DIRECT CONSEQUENCES
Food insecurity is closely linked to impacts on children’s intellectual development capacity. Following this line, the performance of an adult in various aspects of their daily life can also be compromised, generating important health problems.
In this way, apart from serious socioeconomic impacts caused by food insecurity, it can represent a double burden for the national health systems, due to the inaccessibility of food rich in quality and quantity that ends up weakening Paraguayan families widely.
RELEVANT DATA
When talking about food insecurity, gender gaps can also be observed within reality, since according to the aforementioned study, 29.98% of women suffer from a moderate lack of food security as head of household, compared to men as heads of household who suffer from it in 22.22%.
“This is due to what we have been discussing regularly in Paraguay, because due to the activities they carry out, focused on caring for the family, many times they do not have sufficient resources or time to generate income that can help them find quality food,” Meza emphasized.
