This is a rare task in IELTS Cambridge books because it contains disbelief. The person who thought it perhaps assumes that advancements in agriculture should have wiped the hunger issue away, the same way a wiper wipes droplets of rain from a car’s windshield. But why is hunger still rampant when agriculture is so advanced? 

I have read many essays on this, and nine out of ten are mainly about the issue of hunger with little consideration of advancements in agriculture. IELTS candidates write about poverty, employment issues, distribution of food, or wars, but rarely do they consider the part about agriculture. In other words, they pay more attention to one side of the issue (hunger) than the other (advancement in agriculture), limiting task response to band 6. 

A good response should consider that farming is still manual in many parts of the world, where families work on small farms without access to modernized farming equipment. As a result, the harvest is not proportionate to the growing population. It should also be noted that modernization comes with a cost, which must be added to the food price to compensate for the initial investment. In other words, the more modernized farming becomes, the higher the price of food will probably be, causing many not to be able to afford food. 

Regarding solutions, many IELTS candidates write about governments responsible for fixing employment issues and countries coming to peace so food can be better distributed globally. These solutions target the part about the hunger issue, but they rarely consider advancement in agriculture. 

Perhaps world powers should consider distributing farming equipment and technology at a fair price to overcome the hunger issue. Otherwise, they will have to open their borders to millions of hungry people. I am sure you can think of other solutions.