Hungry mouths
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On Monday, the world became home to 7 billion human beings. But it won’t stop there. As the human population is expected to cross 9 billion by 2050, the predominant worry revolves around food security: who will feed the rapidly expanding number of people on the planet?
Having more mouths to feed is certainly a challenge at a time when already one billion men, women and children are chronically hungry. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that food production needs to be increased by 70 percent by 2050 to feed the world’s increased population.
While the world’s population keeps rising, attention to problems of food security has been inadequate. This generation and the next must have enough safe, nutritious and affordable food. According to Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), we should support smallholder farmers so that they can feed themselves and contribute to the world’s food supply as the population grows exponentially. And, at the same time, ensure that those who need to buy food have the income to do so.
In developing countries—where most of the world’s hungry people are—the scope for expanding the total area under cultivation is very limited. And that spells more hunger, unless we take action now. Future food security depends on whether rural areas provide opportunities for young people, both on the farm and off. In this context, agriculture must be a viable and attractive option, and young entrepreneurs need to be provided with finance and other resources so that they can grow small businesses and build communities they want to live in.
Poverty and food security are closely linked concepts that overlap. It is thought that hunger is the result of poverty but hunger can also be a cause of poverty. Poverty thus needs to be addressed simultaneously. If we don’t invest now in rural development, more people, especially youths, will abandon rural areas, often ending up in urban slums. That could be devastating for their lives, as well as for the future.
Curbing population growth must be an urgent priority for all nations. Indeed, there’s ample evidence to suggest that humanity is already putting too much stress on the world’s environment. Rising temperatures and the increasing frequency of severe weather suggest that we may be altering the Earth’s climate. In order to control rapid population growth, governments need to undertake massive campaigns at the local, national and international levels. Governments in some countries have been conducting artificial birth control however some orthodox communities oppose contraception. In some developed countries, population is expected to have dropped. However, it is challenging to decrease the population growth rate in developing countries. Experts suggest that women need to be provided contraceptives in areas where population growth rate is high. UNFPA estimates that 215 million women do not yet have access to contraceptives.
In the midst of a booming population and high levels of poverty, it seems challenging to maintain food security in South Asia. South Asia is not only the home of more than half of the world’s poor but is also the largest region with the largest population. Demographically, South Asia is a diverse region of 1.64 billion people (24 percent of the world’s population).
India, with its 1.2 billion people, is expected to overtake China around 2030 when the Indian population as estimated to be around 1.6 billion. India, which struggles with a deeply held preference for sons and a tilted sex ratio because of millions of aborted female fetuses, has highlighted this issue.
Nepal is no exception. Though the government has been conducting family planning programmes to limit birth, people are giving more birth, with preference to boys. However, the recent demographic survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), 2011 has shown that Nepal’s population growth rate dropped to 1.4 percent from 2.2 percent from the 2001 census. The recent census showed Nepal’s population to be 26.6 million, lower than the estimated 28.4 million.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) has projected a higher food reserve as the latest census has shown the population to be lower than estimated. According to MoAC, Nepal’s food reserve increased to 443,057 tonnes from the previously estimated 110,634 tonnes. Nepal experienced a food surplus in the last fiscal year 2010-11 after two straight years of deficit. The country had a food deficit of 330,000 tonnes and 132,000 tonnes in fiscal years 2009-10 and 2008-09 respectively.
Based on the consumption rate of 191 kg per person per year (a standard fixed by FAO), the country’s annual food requirement has come down to 5.08 million tonnes from the earlier projection of 5.4 million tonnes. Overall food grain (rice, maize, wheat, millet, barley, and buckwheat) output grew 11 percent in the last fiscal year.
Though that is good news for this year, uncertainty and challenges still lie ahead. Low and stagnant productivity of agricultural crops, especially cereal, is a major concern for food security in Nepal. Poor agricultural growth is attributed to low input use per unit area, poor access to loans and irrigation facilities, poor extension and research services, inadequate infrastructure and lack of effective policy support. There is no scope for expanding cultivable land which has been declining in the face of urbanisation, industrialisation and high population growth. The ever-growing population has been putting pressure on the land, leading to fragmentation, ecological degradation and declining land productivity.
Effective food distribution mechanisms are also important while tackling the hunger problem. Ill-planned food distribution may create dependency on rice, which further limits production. Due to the lack of an effective monitoring mechanism for food distribution, it is difficult to know if the targeted people are receiving it.
In a nutshell, future food security depends on the successful adoption of policies that support sustainable agricultural development and increased productivity; countries across the globe must begin to actively invest in agricultural research, collaborate to reduce trade barriers, adopt new technologies and innovation and work to establish a business environment where private capital can support agricultural and rural development.
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