The Group of Eight leading nations called last Monday “for increasing public and private investment” in agriculture, but their communiqué after the first meeting on the subject acknowledged that efforts to tackle hunger were lagging.

G8 agriculture ministers, meeting in northern Italy, said that the world was “very far from reaching” the United Nations’ goal of halving by 2015 the world’s proportion of malnourished people, after they reviewed what they called “alarming data” on hunger.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation told the G8 that the number of chronically hungry people is set to increase by 75-100m this year as result of persistently high food prices and the economic crisis, bringing the number of malnourished well above the one billion mark.

While agricultural commodities prices had fallen from last year’s record highs, they were “well above previous lows in many countries”.

“The depth of the current economic recession means that the number of people who are poor and, consequently, hungry has increase since last year,” the statement said. “Structural factors may affect prices over the medium term, and increased volatility and demand raise important question about food security in the future.”