More than 100 million people worldwide are facing acute malnutrition and risk starving to death, a senior United Nations official has warned.

Dominique Burgeon, director of the emergency division at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said the number of people at risk would continue to grow, costing millions of lives, if humanitarian aid is not paired with more support for farmers.

Latest figures showed 102 million people were on the brink of starvation last year, an increase of almost 30 per cent from 80 million in 2015.

“Humanitarian assistance has kept many people alive so far but their food security situation has continued to deteriorate,” Mr Burgeon told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

More investment is needed to help people feed themselves by farming crops and livestock, he added.

“We come with aeroplanes, we provide food assistance and we manage to keep them alive but we do not invest enough in the livelihood of these people,” he said.

“We avoid them falling into famine but we are not good at taking them off the cliff, away from food insecurity.”

Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan Show all 8 1 /8 Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan Analysis by the UN estimates that 2.8 million people are currently facing “acute” food and nutrition insecurity in South Sudan’s Greater Upper Nile states, including Unity Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan This young Rooney fan is one of 40,000 people facing a catastrophic famine that the United Nations believe is already happening Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan Hunger is driving a range of behaviors. “Families are running out of options,” therefore the skin of cattle is being eaten; undigested food in slaughtered cattle’s stomachs is being removed and “squeezed” to create beef-smelling stock; the killing and eating of birds and animals, not usually hunted, is increasing Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan People living on the so-called “highlands” of the Sudd swamp travel on thin canoes for days to register for food Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan The WFP have evidence that children under 10, travelling on their own, walked over 120 miles over days to leave government-control locations for the thin security of Nuer-controlled Nyal Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan People endure three, four hour waits at five locations where the WFP counted, registered, and then finally distributed life-saving rations Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan A two-year bloody conflict between mainly Dinka and Nuer groups, allied to warring government and opposition forces, and now spreading into other inter-ethnic struggles, is destroying the country’s once potentially oil-rich future Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan One UN report says there is “overwhelming evidence” of a humanitarian emergency in four Unity counties where communities are already using “severe coping strategies” not been seen since the conflict began Ashley Hamer

Last month, the UN World Food Programme said more than 20 million people – greater than the population of Romania or Florida – risk dying from starvation within six months in four separate famines.

Wars in Yemen, Nigeria and South Sudan have devastated populations, while a drought in east Africa has ruined the agricultural economy and left millions in poverty.

Famine has been formally declared in two counties of South Sudan as a result of prolonged civil war and the ongoing economic crisis.

In one-profitable northeastern Nigeria, a seven-year insurgency by Boko Haram militants has uprooted some 1.8 million people, forcing many to abandon their farms.

2.1 million children are facing famine in Yemen

The government says it has reclaimed most of the territory it lost to the jihadist group but security remains a concern, UN officials said.

Mr Burgeon said the FAO had raised less than a third of the $20m (£16.3m) it needs within the next two weeks to support almost two million people in the upcoming planting season in Nigeria – an investment he said would save money in the future.

“If you don’t support those who want to return to their area to crop then you have to agree that you will have to provide massive aid assistance at least until the harvest in 2018, which is unbearable,” he said.

Lack of funding was also hampering the agency’s response in Syria, where food production dropped to an all-time low in 2016, Mr Burgeon added.

“A lot is going to food assistance and barely anything is going to help farmers who have decided to stay on their land,” he said, urging international governments to provide better, localised support.

“What we need to do is to help them stay and crop their land and be there for the future. To survive is not enough.”

Responding to the crisis in South Sudan last month, UN officials blamed the country’s politicians, adding that the country’s fertile land conditions suggest the famine is “man-made”.