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Thursday, July 2, 2015

100 young scientists thinker on feeding 9.6bn people






 About100 concerned young scientists are currently looking at ways of making food available to 9.6billion people in the world and another two billion people by 2050, NaijaAgroNet reports.

This information emerged from an interactive discussion designed to mark the 65th Lindau Nobel Lauraete Meeting this year. The meeting  which witnessed a record number of 65 laureates and over 650 young scientists meeting in Germany from June 28-July 3, is meant to discuss solutions to world food problem.

Mars’ Chief Agricultural Officer, Howard-Yana Shapiro, NaijaAgroNet gathered, spoke during the discussion about the need to look beyond calories: “undernourishment is really just the tip of the iceberg. Deficiencies in nutrients like iron, vitamin B12, folate, vitamin A, affect huge numbers of people around the world and lead to physical and cognitive stunting”, in a world where an estimated 2 billion people are anaemic.

Report says that over six decades after the Green Revolution, malnutrition still stares vast majority of the world in the face; meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, had said that almost 800 million people worldwide are undernourished. With the global population predicted to rise to between 9 and 10 billion by 2050, NaijaAgroNet learnt, the world faces an increasingly uncertain future that demands a coordinated response from all sectors and disciplines.

According to Steven Chu who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1997 and served as the US Secretary of Energy in the first Obama administration, “the food system is one of the greatest contributors to climate change and will also be one its greatest victims. But agriculture can mitigate worsening climatic stresses if sustainable practices are adopted at scale.” Chu currently teaches at Stanford University, where he is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology.

Once every year, NaijaAgroNet reports, some dozens of Nobel Laureates convene at Lindau to meet the next generation of leading scientists: undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doc researchers from all over the world. The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings foster the exchange among scientists of different generations, cultures, and disciplines. The 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting is dedicated to interdisciplinary scientific exchange.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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