JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The number of hungry children in Africa will increase by over three million by 2025 if current policy and investment trends continue, according to a report released in Cape Town on Thursday.

    The report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) predicts that the continent will fail to meet the millennium development goal of halving child malnutrition by 2015 unless more aggressive measures are taken now.

    "By 2025, hunger could be a daily reality for nearly 42 million children," said IFPRI Director General Joachim von Braun in a statement released along with the report.

    "But it doesn't have to be this way. With significant changes in policy and investment priorities starting now, Africa could sharply reduce child malnutrition and come close to achieving the millennium development goal on time," said von Braun.

    The report said if current trends continued, child malnutrition in Africa would grow from 38.6 million to 41.9 million by 2025.

    Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Burkina Faso, Niger, Somalia, and Sudan, would see the sharpest increase, but there would actually be a decline of 2.3 million hungry children in west and north Africa.

    Under a "pessimistic" scenario, in which agricultural production and nutrition deteriorated and investment shrank, the total number of malnourished children under five in sub-Saharan Africa would escalate from 32.7 million to 55.1 million in 2025.

    The report said poor economic and political governance, inadequate infrastructure, limited access to markets and low investment in agriculture were contributing to the under-performance of Africa's agricultural sector.

    Sound policies and increased investment targeted at these are ascould strengthen food security and reduce child malnutrition significantly across the continent.

    An additional 4.7 billion dollars a year in investments above "business as usual" levels, along with policy changes, would enable Africa to confront child malnutrition "as effectively as the rest of the developing world," lead author of the report, IFPRI staffer Mark Rosegrant said. Enditem