The FAO report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in Europe and Central Asia 2017, has revealed food insecurity, nutrition problems in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region.
The countries of Europe and Central Asia have made good progress reducing the prevalence of undernourishment, but some 14.3 million women and men in the region are still not getting the food they need and malnutrition problems are on the rise, according to the report.
The report analyzes a range of food security and nutrition indicators to assess the countries’ progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 (End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture) by 2030.
After tremendous progress in recent years, the situation in the region now reportedly appears to be stagnant. The prevalence of undernourishment remained almost unchanged in the Caucasus and Central Asia according to the report.
The report notes that Tajikistan has the highest prevalence of undernutrition in the region. In 2014-2016 it is estimated that 30.1 percent of the population of Tajikistan (or 2.6 million people) were undernourished.
In Tajikistan, child undernourishment remains a more severe problem, and the prevalence of both underweight and wasting are higher than the prevalence of overweight.
The agricultural sector is reportedly an integral part of many of the ECA countries’ economies. The share of GDP that agriculture creates varies from approximately 4 percent in the Russian Federation to 27 percent in Tajikistan.
In the non-EU ECA countries, employment in agriculture is the highest in Tajikistan with 58 percent of the total labor population working in agriculture,
According to the report, Tajikistan has the lowest GDP per capital rate in the ECA region. In 2015, the gross domestic product per capita in Tajikistan was reportedly recorded at only 933 U.S. dollars.
