Population Growth and Agriculture
More people 🌍means more mouths to feed 🍴!
Population growth is a critical challenge facing Sub-Saharan Africa. The Population Reference Bureau estimates the region’s population currently stands at 900 million people and is projected to double by 2050.
What does this mean for agriculture?
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations(FOA) forecasts that Global population growth means that food production needs to increase by 70% by 2050, placing pressure on food production capacity.
As the population continues to grow, there is increased pressure on producers to meet increased food demand. And with agriculture’s impact on climate change, sustainability practices are important in ensuring increased food production does not negatively impact the environment. Sustainable practices also ensure high quality standards are maintained in the food production process.
An increase in production capacity is essential to mitigate rising food costs. Given the law of supply and demand, we can expect prices to fall when supply exceeds demand. Consequently when demand exceeds supply, prices rise. With technology, the gap between supply and demand can be closed thus ensuring food production increases closely match population growth.
Does this mean lost hope? No!
Urbanization has often been considered a threat to food security since it is likely to reduce the availability of land for agriculture purposes indirectly and directly. Increased conversion of lands to settlement area could ultimately lead to soil degradation, groundwater depletion and climate stress.
W. Clement Stone once said “To every disadvantage there is a corresponding advantage’.
At the turn of the 19th century, Thomas Malthus predicted population growth would lead to famine due to the inability to feed a growing population. However, this prediction failed to materialize. Nonetheless agricultural innovation from the 19th century contributed to mechanized farming methods which have widened the gap between supply and demand.
While we produce more food, we also waste more than 40% of food produced. According to the United Nation Environmental Programme, in Sub-Saharan Africa, post-harvest food losses are estimated to be worth US $ 4 billion per year, enough to feed at least 48 million people! Perhaps it is safe to say that a growing population could help tackle the issue of food waste ‘with more mouths to feed’. To achieve this we need to close the gap between supply (farmers) and demand (consumers).
