The world food problems

As the population grows in a rapidly rate nowadays, world food problem has become an important issues. And the world food problems are brought by the following reasons:

Billions go Hungry because of unbalanced food supply

On average, people in the richest developed nations eat between 30 and 40 per cent more calories than they need, while the people of the poorest nations on average get 10 per cent less than this basic minimum. There are however wide differences: Kenyans on average get 92 per cent of what they need, but the poorest 40 per cent of the rural people suffer serious malnutrition, attempting to subsist on less than three quarters of their requirements.

"Over 1 billion people - about one in every five on earth - do not get enough food to lead fully productive lives. At least 400 million of them get less than 80 per cent of their basic needs, and are condemned to stunted growth and constant danger of serious illness. Two thirds live in Asia, another fifth in Africa. Two thirds are probably under 15 years old. And their numbers are growing. Every year about 11 million children under the age of five die from hunger or hunger-related diseases. Those that survive may never reach their full potential. One third of Peru's children are so underfed that their growth is stunted. And if a child does not get enough to eat in its first years of life, its brain will not develop properly. One study followed up malnourished Indian children under five for the next 17 years of their lives - and found that their capacity for work was 30 per cent less than that of children from the same class and the same villages who had had enough to eat".

Poverty, not lack of Food causes Hunger

People go hungry in a world that produces more than enough. They cannot get food because they are too poor to buy or grow the food they need. Increasing food production by itself does not tackle hunger. Consumption also has to rise. The food which is grown has to actually reach those in hunger. "India is a production success story - and a consumption disaster. Its wheat harvest more than doubled under the impact of the Green Revolution between 1965 and 1972; one of the most spectacular increases in history. It provided food aid to the newly-emergent Bangladesh and for a while became the world's second biggest donor after the United States. By the mid-1980s, it had a grain surplus of 24 billion metric tons. Nevertheless, it still has about half of all the hungry people on earth. Consumption of grain per head failed to increase over the period of the production "miracle" and nearly half its people are too poor to buy enough to eat". This raises significant questions about private enterprise and the ethics of 'free' financial markets.

If their own country people cannot afford to buy food, landowners divert their efforts to growing more cash crops - such as cotton, coffee, tea, sugar or tobacco - for export. Governments, saddled with huge debt burdens, will tend to encourage this to earn foreign exchange. There is vigorous debate as to whether the growth of cash crops has reduced food production; but there is little doubt that they tend to take up the best land, pushing subsistence farmers onto areas with poorer soil and rainfall; yields are lower on this marginal land, so the farmers have to exploit more of it, increasing the spread of deserts. Cash crops also receive most of the Third World's credit, fertilizers and pesticides, and agricultural advice. As food production has fallen, particularly in Africa, more and more has had to be imported. "In 1984, 140 million Africans - more than a quarter of the continent's population - were fed with grain from overseas; though neither they nor their countries could afford to buy enough to prevent widespread hunger". Both the demand for imports and the inability to pay for enough of them will worsen over the next decades. Food aid is no answer, even if surplus countries are prepared to give it. Although it is essential to relieve short-term famine, food aid undermines local production in more normal circumstances.

Less land for growing food crops

In order to earn more money in the export market, farmers in many developing countries grow cash crops (e.g. coffee, tea, cotton and tobacco). Therefore, less land is available for growing food crops.

More deserts appears because of deforestation and over-grazed

In some countries, many pastures are over-grazed as many people allow too many cattle and sheep to feed on one land. As a result, the nutrients in that land will be used up in a short time and deserts are formed. Besides, many lands are over deforested and hence the soil cannot retain anymore. Thus the exposed topsoil is subjected to soil erosion.

Modification of the environment bring disasters

Modification of the environment by humans activities has resulted in increased chances of having natural disasters such as droughts, floods and pests in many parts of the world. This would lead to the slow-down of food production.

The impact of human explosion on the environment

The relationship between demographic forces and the environment is complex. Certainly, population growth that exceeds the capacity of ecosystems will undermine efforts to improve environmental quality. Lack of integration of population and economic development policies exacerbates the adverse impact of population growth on the natural environment and poverty. Much of the rapid population growth projected for the next two decades will occur in areas already under severe environmental stress and areas that face substantial resource constraints to increased food production (see Box 2-1). In other areas, population growth will significantly contribute to increased consumption of energy and materials. Where population growth has stabilized, changes in income and consumption patterns will also contribute more to increased energy and materials use.

Four aspects of population impact the environment: (i) resource demands directly resulting from increased population; (ii) changes in labor productivity and consumption patterns resulting from demographic shifts (age distribution); (iii) population migration patterns; and (iv) population densities that exceed local capacities to manage environmental effects.

Over the next 15 years, approximately 700 million people will be added to the population of Asia (see Figure 2-1). Population growth rates are expected to decline significantly within the region over this time period. The United Nations predicts that population growth in East Asia will fall from the 1.3 percent annual growth rate sustained over the past two decades to 0.7 percent annually over the next 20 years. In South Asia, the annual growth rate in population will fall from 2.2 percent (1975 through 1997) to 1.5 percent (1997 through 2015). But even with this drop in the annual growth rate, the total population will increase substantially. The resource demands of population growth remain one of the most significant drivers of environmental degradation within the region.

Almost all countries in the Asia and Pacific region are experiencing a demographic transition from high to low fertility and mortality rates. In South Asia, infant and child mortality is falling fast, resulting in a greater share of youth in the population and an expanding active labor force (ADB 1997).

In much of East Asia, by contrast, the next 25 years will result in a significant “greying” of the population as the economically dependent segment of the population grows at a faster rate than the active labor force. These demographic shifts will have multiple indirect impacts on the environment ranging from shifting patterns of consumption to labor supply for future economic development. The important point is that the impact of demographic transition (economically active population compared to economically dependent population) on the environment is largely contingent on the economic opportunities available within each of the DMCs.

Population migration has in many cases intensified environmental challenges within the region. The most significant migration pattern in the region is rural to urban migration in individual countries. There is also significant international migration to high-growth, industrializing countries. Urban and rural migrations are major obstacles to adequate management of urban environmental concerns. Also, rural migrants have been driven to rapidly growing cities in search of employment and improved social welfare. This economically disadvantaged population typically settles in environmentally hazardous areas such as riverbanks, swamps, and estuaries. They often have little choice but to engage in unhealthy and hazardous occupations. In addition, limited social and health services reach this portion of the population.

Although migration to urban centers is considerable, population in rural areas also increased substantially. Population growth in rural areas has had a significant impact on agriculture. Agricultural land use increased by 13 percent (or 170 million ha) in the last 30 years, largely at the expense of lowland forests and their rich biodiversity. Population densities have been one factor driving land degradation in portions of the Asia and Pacific region (along with weak institutions, inappropriate land tenure systems, and other factors). The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that with virtually no reserves of land with crop production potential, further population growth in South Asia will lead to increased use of marginal land, destabilization of traditional farming systems, and increased migration to urban areas. From 1990 to 2025, available land per capita in Pakistan is projected to fall from 0.17 ha to 0.07 ha, and in India, from 0.20 ha to 0.12 ha.

Conclusion

The population explosion influences both of the environment and the food problem a lot. And most of the influences are seriously affecting our normal life. Therefore, actions should be taken to stop the population explosion to extend.