The world body also noted that there are already more than 7,500,000,000 people on planet Earth, noting that it actually took until the early 1800s for the world population to reach one billion.
But suddenly, the world is fast heading towards a billion every 12-15 years, the UN noted, while also projecting that a possible population of 11billion by then; adding that, given this rate, 'our numbers could reach 16bn by 2100'.
Given this reality, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), noted that the world will need 70 percent more food by 2050. This more food need, the FAO stressed would be informed by salient indices such as:
- The changing socio-economic environment
- The natural resource base to 2050 –will there be enough land, water and genetic diversity to meet demands?
- The potential for food security
Explaining further, the FAO, its the executive summary of its survey report, indicated that by 2050, the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion representing 34 percent higher than today.
It however stressed that nearly all of this population increase will occur in developing countries where urbanization will continue at an accelerated pace since about 70 percent of the world’s population will be urban when compared to the world's current 49 percent and then, "Income levels will be many multiples of what they are now."
It is the need to feed this larger, more urban and richer population, that food production, i.e. 'net of food used for biofuels', must increase by 70 percent.
In the same vein, annual cereal production will need to rise to about 3 billion tonnes from its current 2.1 billion and annual meat production will need to rise by over 200 million tonnes to reach 470 million tonnes.
FAO report also argues that the required increase in food production can be largely achieved if the necessary streams of investments are undertaken and policies conducive to agricultural production are put in place.
Yet, increasing production is not sufficient to achieve food security if not strongly complemented by policies to enhance access by fighting poverty, especially in rural areas, as well as effective safety net programmes, among others.
