The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a forecast this week that ‘world food production must increase by 70 percent by 2050, to nourish a human population then likely to be 9.1 billion people.’ The current world population is 6.8 billion, says the UN.
According to FAO Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem, “FAO is cautiously optimistic about the world’s potential to feed itself by 2050.”
FAO is in the thick of preparations for a high-level expert forum in Rome on October 12-13, with the theme “How to Feed the World in 2050.” About 300 specialists from academic, non-governmental and private sector institutions are expected to attend. This forum is in itself a preparation for the upcoming World Summit on Food Security in Rome on November 16-18.
The report states that “Nearly all of the population growth will occur in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is expected to grow the fastest (up 108 percent, 910 million people), and East and South East Asia’s the slowest (up 11 percent, 228 million). Around 70 percent of the world population will live in cities or urban areas by 2050, up from 49 percent today.”
Two reasons for the great demand for food in the not-so-distant future: rising incomes which will result, and is even now resulting, in increase in demand, as well as a steadily ballooning world population. Hence, ‘cereal production will have to increase by almost a billion tonnes from 2.1 billion today and meat production will have to grow by more than 200 million tonnes to reach a total of 470 million tonnes in 2050.
Via The Raw Story
