ROME (Reuters) – The number of people in the world suffering chronic hunger has declined for the first time in 15 years, due to improving economic conditions and lower food prices, the United Nations' food agency said on Tuesday.

About 925 million people are undernourished in 2010, down from a record 1.02 billion last year, which was the highest number in four decades, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report.
Despite the decline in chronic malnourishment reported by the FAO, food riots in Mozambique earlier this month, protests in Egypt and rising grain prices due to a drought in Russia have pushed the issue of hunger and food security up the global agenda.
The FAO said most of the world's hungry people live in developing countries, where they account for 16 percent of the population in 2010.
While that marks an improvement from a level of 18 percent in 2009, the FAO warned it was lagging a UN target to halve the proportion of undernourished people in developing countries from 20 percent in 1990-92 to 10 percent in 2015.
“The fact that nearly a billion people remain hungry even after the recent food and financial crises have largely passed indicates a deeper structural problem,” the FAO said.
“Governments should encourage increased investment in agriculture, expand safety nets and social assistance programs, and enhance income-generating activities for the rural and urban poor.”
World leaders are expected to declare at a United Nations summit next week that the set of goals aimed at drastically reducing poverty and hunger worldwide by 2015 are achievable, according to a draft document.