Food Security and Poverty World’s Greatest Challenges
8 February 2011 The United Nations Population Division estimates that the global population is more than 6.8 billion and could reach 9.2 billion by 2050. More than 95 percent of the population growth is occurring in developing countries, which already account for the majority of the global population. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), there are more than one billion hungry people on Earth – about one-seventh of the planet’s total population. The world’s ability to feed its growing population is a serious problem, and solutions will be difficult to achieve.
The world faces two great challenges in the quest to ensure food security and reduce poverty. First, agricultural production on existing low-intensity farmland must be increased through the adoption of high-yielding varieties of grains, an increase in the correct use of nutrients (particularly fertilizer) and other inputs, better farm management and greater market access. Simultaneously, the global agricultural community must lead the effort to conserve the earth’s limited resources and minimize agricultural pollution.
After years of declining investment, agriculture has become the development priority it should be, given that it is the growth engine of the economies and employment in most developing countries. In many of these countries, the agricultural sector employs more than half of the population (and in some nations, more than 80 percent).
For over 35 years, IFDC has helped improve food security and stimulate economic growth in nearly 100 countries by addressing both supply- and demand-side issues to increase agricultural sector performance. IFDC programs help develop competitive markets and expand trade because improved agricultural production systems and agribusiness development are inextricably linked.
Improved seeds, fertilizers and crop protection products are essential to improving agricultural productivity in developing nations. There is no question that increasing the efficiency of fertilizers is critical to successfully improving crop yields. Most of the fertilizers in use today were developed during the 1940s-1980s by scientists of the National Fertilizer Development Center (NFDC) of the Tennessee Valley Authority, an agency of the US Government, along with the fertilizer industry, state land grant university research and extension systems. Since then, very few globally applicable breakthroughs in fertilizer technology have occurred (particularly none that are affordable for use on staple food crops by farmers in the less developed countries).
Dr. Amit Roy, president and chief executive officer, International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC)
Dr. Amit Roy has been IFDC President/CEO since 1992. Under his leadership, IFDC’s mission has expanded, addressing global food security, agribusiness, economic development and the environment. He began research and development of new or modified fertilizer materials/processes, and provided needed technical assistance to develop fertilizer industries in many developing countries. Roy played a key role in organizing the landmark Africa Fertilizer Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2006. In 2009, IFDC launched the Virtual Fertilizer Research Center, Roy’s response to the global need for a new generation of fertilizers.
To read the rest of Dr. Roy’s column, please see February’s issue of Farm Chemicals International.
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