Animal nutrition is the science of providing farm animals with the right quantity and quality of nutrients required for growth, maintenance, reproduction, and production. Proper animal nutrition ensures that livestock receive balanced diets containing carbohydrates, proteins, fats and oils, vitamins, minerals, and water in the correct proportions. These nutrients enable animals to grow efficiently, resist diseases, reproduce successfully, and produce high-quality meat, milk, eggs, and other animal products. Consequently, animal nutrition is directly linked to global food security because healthy and productive livestock contribute significantly to the availability, accessibility, affordability, and nutritional quality of food.
According to the 2026 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI), jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO), read more; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NdPiZV04nF1VnD-yRgs3Bph1DXZxlQX8/view?usp=drivesdk
The world continues to face significant food security and nutrition challenges despite gradual improvements in reducing hunger. The report focuses on the high cost and affordability of a healthy diet, emphasizing that achieving food security is no longer only about producing enough food but also about ensuring that nutritious food is affordable and accessible to everyone.
The report estimates that between 608 million and 696 million people, representing 7.4–8.5% of the global population, experienced hunger in 2025. Although this reflects a gradual decline compared with previous years, progress remains too slow to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) by 2030. For the first time, Africa has become the region with the largest number of hungry people, accounting for approximately 309 million individuals. Persistent conflicts, climate change, economic instability, population growth, and weak agricultural systems continue to drive food insecurity across many African countries.
One of the major concerns highlighted in the report is the rising Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet (CoHD). A healthy diet is defined as one that is adequate, balanced, diverse, and moderate, providing all the nutrients required for healthy living. The global average cost of a healthy diet increased from 3.44 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) dollars in 2021 to 4.28 PPP dollars in 2025. As a result, about 2.69 billion people, equivalent to 32.7% of the world’s population, could not afford a healthy diet. This indicates that while food may be available in many regions, nutritious foods such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products, fish, eggs, and legumes remain beyond the reach of many households due to rising prices and low incomes.
The report further reveals that dietary diversity remains poor across the world. Only 30.8% of children aged 6–23 months consume a minimally diverse diet, while only 62.7% of women aged 15–49 years meet the minimum dietary diversity requirements. Poor dietary diversity contributes to malnutrition, weak immunity, impaired physical and mental development, and increased vulnerability to diseases. Furthermore, the report states that the world is off track in achieving all the 2030 global nutrition targets, including reducing child stunting, wasting, overweight, and low birth weight. Adult obesity continues to rise globally, reaching 16.2% in 2024, showing that malnutrition includes both undernutrition and overnutrition.
The report identifies several structural factors responsible for the increasing cost of healthy diets. These include low agricultural productivity, inefficient food value chains, poor transportation systems, inadequate storage and cold-chain facilities, high production costs, rising prices of agricultural inputs, and limited trade integration. These challenges increase the cost of producing, transporting, storing, and marketing nutritious foods, making them less affordable for consumers.
Animal nutrition plays a critical role in addressing these food security challenges. Well-nourished livestock grow faster, reproduce more efficiently, produce higher quantities of milk and eggs, convert feed into meat more effectively, and are more resistant to diseases. Improved animal nutrition therefore increases the supply of animal-source foods, enhances food quality, improves farmers’ incomes, and contributes to national food security. Conversely, poor feeding practices reduce livestock productivity, increase disease outbreaks, lower farmers’ profits, and limit the availability of nutritious foods.
The 2026 SOFI report recommends that governments and stakeholders adopt context-specific strategies to improve food security. These include increasing the production of nutrient-dense foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, milk, eggs, and fish through investment in research, innovation, and agricultural support programmes. The report also recommends improving food value chains by investing in processing industries, modern storage facilities, transportation infrastructure, and cold-chain systems to reduce post-harvest losses and lower food costs. In addition, governments should implement inclusive policies that support small-scale farmers, women, youth, and vulnerable populations while strengthening national and subnational data collection systems to guide evidence-based food and nutrition policies.
In conclusion, the 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World demonstrates that although global hunger is gradually declining, the world remains far from achieving zero hunger. Rising food prices, limited access to nutritious diets, climate change, conflicts, and weak food systems continue to threaten global food security. Improving animal nutrition remains one of the most effective strategies for increasing livestock productivity, enhancing the supply of nutritious animal products, improving household incomes, and ensuring sustainable food security. Through investments in sustainable agriculture, efficient food systems, and balanced animal nutrition, countries can make significant progress toward ending hunger, reducing malnutrition, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
