Our world is getting larger… and hungrier… with every tick of the clock. Each second, the world’s population grows by nearly 3 more people, that is 240,000 people a day.
By 2025, the global population will reach 8 billion people and 9.6 billion by 2050. This means there will be an extra billion mouths to feed within the next 12 years. And within one generation, there will be more people additionally on the planet than there were at the beginning of the 20th century.
Feeding the growing world population poses an unprecedented challenge to human ingenuity. Even in the best of circumstances, sustainably satisfying this hugely increased demand for crops and livestock will be an enormous task. By 2050, food production must increase by 70% to keep pace.
To generate enough food to meet the ever-growing demands of a growing population, we need to build more sustainable food production systems and to embrace smarter farming methods. Fortunately, the technology to do so is available – and working – right now!
Achieving the level of agricultural productivity necessary to meet the immensely risen world demand for food, fibre and fuel by 2050 will be a tremendous challenge. Meeting this challenge is made even more daunting by a number of stringent constraints - the combined effect of which the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has termed “a gathering storm”.
Key constraints that global agriculture is facing:
- Slow-down in productivity growth
- Limited availability of new arable land
- Climate change
- Price and availability of energy
- Impact of urbanisation on rural labour supply
In light of the above challenges to our food supply and to the environment, the FAO has declared Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (or SCPI) as their first strategic objective. Sustainable intensification has been defined as producing more from the same area of land while reducing negative environmental impacts.
What is therefore needed are innovative tools and techniques that empower farmers to do just that!