Dharwad: The global community of scholars must work together to solve problems like food insecurity, sad Mark Hussey, noted agricultural scientist and interim president of Texas Agricultural and Medical University.

Addressing fresh graduates, postgraduates and PhD awardees at the 27th annual convocation of the University of Agricultural Sciences held in Dharwad on Thursday, he said the world’s exponentially growing population was at the core of these problems.

“As a result, food insecurity, malnutrition and world hunger are rampantly growing. Currently, one sixth of the world’s population (a billion people) suffer from chronic hunger and at least 2.5 million children die each year globally from undernutrition. Not only does hunger rob the poor of a healthy and productive life and stunt mental and physical development, it provides a breeding ground for crime and civil unrest,” he warned.

As a remedy, he suggested that there should be diligent efforts to train the next generation of ‘hunger fighters’ and to develop and deploy new technologies. He added that many of these issues could be addressed by agricultural universities.

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