David Beasley, Executive Director of World Food Program (WFP) has said that currently about 40 percent of the population in Afghanistan has no food security.

Referring to the UN’s concerns about the rising number of people suffering from hunger, WFP officials said that over the past three years, four million more people now face a lack of food security, bringing the total number to 13 million out of about 30 million in the country.  

“Now we have 30 million people, the amount of  money to address (the problem for) eight million is a huge number,” Beasley said. 

According to WFP, from the figure, eight million people are facing a serious risk of hunger. They called on the Afghan government, private sector and the international community to step up efforts to overcome this challenge.

Mirza is an Afghan citizen who has a fast food restaurant in Kabul. He says that in recent years, no work had been done to promote and develop the agriculture sector in the country.

“Over the past few years, the government has done nothing to develop agricultural; if work had been done in this sector, today the people would not be hungry,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) said it is working on a number of programs to promote food security in the country.

“We have outlined a five-year plan for food security. With the implementation of this program, we will overcome a major part of the problem in this sector,” said MAIL spokesman Akbar Rustami.

Officials have said the lack of security, climate change and the flood of return refugees in the past three years has resulted in the increase in poverty and lack of food security.  

WFP has called on the Afghan government, private sector and donor countries to enhance their cooperation in this respect.