Hunger is an outcome of food insecurity. It describes a situation where dietary intake is below the minimum dietary energy requirement. A total of 925 million people are still estimated to suffer from hunger in 2010, representing almost 16 % of the population of developing countries (FAO, 2010). While the number of people suffering from hunger in the world was declining in the 1970s and 1980s in spite of relatively rapid population growth during those
decades, and the proportion of people suffering from hunger in developing countries was declining quite rapidly, these numbers have increased since the mid-1990s, with a significant worsening of a disappointing trend in global hunger in 2009. The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that global economic slowdown, following on the heels of the food crisis between 2006 and 2008, deprived an additional 100 million people of access to adequate food in 2009. The estimated number of people suffering from hunger rose from 870 million in 2004–06 to 915 million in 2008 and to 1 020 million in 2009. A decline in both numbers and the proportion of people suffering from hunger is expected in 2010 as the global economy recovers and food prices remain below their peak level, yet nearly a billion people around the world remain hungry.