ROME, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 published by FAO here on Monday found social protection an emerging critical tool in the drive to eradicate hunger, yet the vast majority of the world''s rural poor are yet to be covered.
According to the report, in poor countries, social protection schemes, such as cash transfers, school feeding and public works, offered an economical way to provide vulnerable people with opportunities to move out of extreme poverty and hunger and to improve their children''s health, education and life chances.
Such programs currently benefited 2.1 billion people in developing countries in various ways, including keeping 150 million people out of extreme poverty.
Expanding such programs in rural areas and linking them to inclusive agricultural growth policies would rapidly reduce the number of poor people, the report said.
Most countries, even the poorest, could afford some kind of social protection program.
FAO estimated that globally, some 67 billion U.S. dollars a year in income supplements, mostly provided by social protection programs, would, along with other targeted pro-poor investments in agriculture, allow for the eradication of hunger by 2030. That is less than 0.10 percent of world GDP.
The report stressed that the notion that social protection reduces people''s work effort is a myth. Rather, recipients often respond to social protection positively.
Still, the report emphasized how social protection alone cannot sustainably eradicate hunger and rural poverty. It therefore underscored the importance of combining and coordinating public investment in social protection with public and private investments in the productive sectors of agriculture and rural development. Such actions would ensure inclusive economic growth as a sustainable way to break the cycle of rural poverty.
The report was released on the eve of World Food Day (Oct. 16), whose focus is on social protection''s role in breaking the cycle of rural poverty.
"It is urgent that we act to support the most vulnerable people in order to free the world of hunger," said FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva.
"Social protection programs allow households to access more food, often by increasing what they grow themselves, and also make their diets more diverse and healthier. These programs can have positive impacts on infant and maternal nutrition, reduce child labor and raise school attendance, all of which increase productivity," he said.