The latest study by the United Nations (UN) agency, Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has cautioned on why hunger may not end by 2030
after all, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The study entitled “The Future of Food and Agriculture:
Trends and Challenges” the UN agency noted that mankind's future ability to
feed itself is in jeopardy due to intensifying pressures on natural resources,
mounting inequality, and the fallout from a changing climate.
Pointed out though that very real and significant progress
in reducing global hunger has been achieved over the past 30 years,
"expanding food production and economic growth have often come at a heavy
cost to the natural environment."
Emphasising that "Almost one half of the forests that
once covered the Earth are now gone. Groundwater sources are being depleted
rapidly. Biodiversity has been deeply eroded," it notes.
Sounding the cautions, FAO Director-General José Graziano da
Silva in his introduction to the report, noted that as a result,
"planetary boundaries may well be surpassed, if current trends continue."
By 2050, NaijaAgroNet gathered, humanity ranking is expected
to likely have grown to nearly 10 billion people.
FAO further said that in a scenario with moderate economic
growth, this population increase will push up global demand for agricultural
products by 50 per cent over present levels projects, noting that ‘The Future of Food and Agriculture,’
intensifying pressures on already-strained natural resources.
At the same time, greater numbers of people will be eating
fewer cereals and larger amounts of meat, fruits, vegetables and processed food
— a result of an ongoing global dietary transition that will further add to
those pressures, driving more deforestation, land degradation, and greenhouse
gas emissions.
Alongside these trends, the planet's changing climate will
throw up additional hurdles. "Climate change will affect every aspect of
food production," the report says. These include greater variability of
precipitation and increases in the frequency of droughts and floods.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology