To address this, the government and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) introduced a national Zero Hunger Challenge in December 2014, aimed at eradicating hunger in the country by 2025.
As women make up 43% of the world's farmers, this would increase total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5% to 4%, and reduce hunger globally by 12% to 17%, according to the FAO".
The FAO excludes trees in plantations and agriculture generally (such as for shade-grown coffee).And by the FAO's definition, several tropical countries at different points along the transition curve seem to be doing better (see diagram).
The FAO estimates that in Ghana, if women and men had equal land rights, women's use of fertiliser and profits per hectare would nearly double.
The cost of achieving the challenge is estimated at 24bn rupees (£255m), according to FAO, but Pradiumna Dahal, a nutrition specialist with Unicef Nepal, says that can be achieved "if there is leadership and commitment from the government".
The FAO warned of "harder times ahead".BHP Billiton formally ended its $40 billion takeover bid for PotashCorp, the world's largest fertiliser company.
In a new report, the FAO extols the merits of eating more of them.
According to George Kourous, a spokesman for the FAO, the growth of aquaculture will be sufficient to meet this increase.
The FAO says it has been suspicious of the Chinese figures for the past six years.Richard Grainger, the FAO's chief statistician, argues that global figures are not important, because fisheries are managed at a regional level.
Most of the affected countries are too poor to cope, so the FAO is appealing for help.
"There is very little knowledge or appreciation of the potential for managing and harvesting insects sustainably," notes Patrick Durst, a Bangkok-based senior forestry officer at the FAO.
