Many rural populations suffer from poverty and hunger.
People have few possibilities of employment and many lack basic necessities, such as food, water, clothing, footwear and shelter. However, economies are based on agriculture and many areas are forested. This offers opportunities to tackle problems. Up to 40 per cent of agricultural produce is wasted in the least developed countries, mainly through lack of storage and processing facilities, poor roads on which to move produce before it perishes, and lack of knowledge of processing technologies. Only about 35 per cent of food is processed in Africa, compared with some 98 per cent in developed countries.