Rising population ‘increases risk of food insecurity’

A RAPIDLY growing population, climate change and degradation of land and water resources are likely to make the world more vulnerable to food insecurity and challenge the task of feeding its people by 2050, the UN’s food agency said.

The world would have to boost cereals output by 1 billion tons and produce 200 million extra tons of livestock products a year by 2050 to feed a population projected at 9 billion people, up from 7 billion now, according to UN estimates.

Intensive farming of the past decades has helped to feed millions of hungry people, but it has often led to degradation of land and water systems on which food production depends, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).