NEW DELHI: On average, an Indian spends 3.5% of his daily income for a plate of food compared to 0.6% for a New Yorker, according to the report “The Cost of a Plate of Food” released by the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) on Friday.
The report said that a plate of food is more expensive in South Sudan where people on average would have to spend 186% of their daily salary on basic ingredients. In the list that includes 36 countries around the world, India ranks 28th.
The report uncovered how sub-Saharan African countries feature heavily on the list with 17 nations from this region ranking the top 20. “The regions high dependency on food imports leaves it vulnerable to global economic conditions, while the high use of informal labor means that many workers are vulnerable to sudden loss of income, ”he said. The report said such a difference highlights the huge inequalities at stake between people living in developing countries and others in the more prosperous parts of the world.
Now the Covid-19 pandemic has added one more layer to the challenges faced by the most vulnerable groups, through rising unemployment, lost remittances and weak economies that prevent countries from offsetting the worst effects of the pandemic, he noted. The report.
He has recommended that with greater short-term investment to support people from the consequences of Covid-19, and a greater emphasis on building long-term sustainable food systems as a basis for access to nutritious and affordable food, the problems of inequalities can be addressed.
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