This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

World leaders are meeting in New York to discuss progress on the Millennium Development Goals they set ten years ago. Five years remain to meet eight goals to reduce hunger, poverty and disease and expand education.

On Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened a three-day summit meeting of one hundred forty presidents and prime ministers. Mr. Ban called for renewed efforts to meet the goals, saying there is much more to do. He said the economic crisis "cannot be an excuse" for limiting development efforts.

A U.N. report says the world had more than one billion undernourished people last year. That followed the food crisis of two thousand seven and eight.