ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three areas where greater consensus would be desirable: the magnitude of hunger; the importance of food in poverty measures; and the implication of measures of hunger and poverty for policy. The differences in the estimates of hunger are wide, ranging from a few tens of millions to over a billion. Effects of hunger estimates on regional and sectoral investment decisions could probably be pointed out. The similarity between estimates of hunger and poverty arise in part from the central role of food in almost all poverty measures. The majority of people would concur that food is about the most basic of human needs, and therefore its deprivation, where it occurs, constitutes an area for urgent policy action. Professor Srinivasan sets out arguments for the lack of adequate scientific basis for the widely used calorie requirements. These norms are also devoid of sufficient behavioural underpinnings and they usually overstate the basic human needs for food.
