How do you feed 9 billion people? The world is facing a perilous convergence of depleting natural resources—of water, good land, energy, nutrients, technology, fish and stable climates. This phenomenon is happening as the world’s population is projected to increase by more than 2 billion between now and 2050, the majority of which will come from Asia.

Here's a look, by the numbers, of the key issues on food security facing Asia and the Pacific today.

1 billion: The approximate number of people in the world who are undernourished or lack enough caloric intake. Another 1 billion are malnourished, and still another billion are overweight or obese.
Source: FAO, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012

2/3: Two-thirds of the world's one billion hungry reside in Asia and the Pacific.
Source: ADB and Agriculture

68%: Percentage of the world's underweight children living in Asia and the Pacific.
Source: ADB, Approaches to Combat Hunger in Asia and the Pacific

Nearly 30%: The figure by which undernourishment decreased in Asia and the Pacific in the past two decades, from 739 million to 564 million.
Source: FAO, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012

3.5% to 38.5%: The annual increase in prevalence of overweight and obesity in women due to undernutrition from the 1990s through the mid-2000s in Bangladesh, Cambodia, PRC, India, Nepal, and Viet Nam.
Source: Popkin BM, Adair LS, Ng SW. Global nutrition transition and the pandemic of obesity in developing countries.

More than 50%: Asia's poor spend more than half of their income on food with nearly one-fifth spending more than 70%.
Source: ADB Operational Plan for Sustainable Food Security in Asia and the Pacific

2.2 billion: The number of people in Asia and the Pacific who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Source: ADB, Building Climate Resilience in the Agriculture Sector of Asia and the Pacific

50%: The percentage of population in Asia and the Pacific expected to be living in urban areas by 2026.
Source: ADB and Agriculture

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