Food sustainability and security: 2050 global food challenge
Abstract
Food security is a concern in Malaysia as it is everywhere. It is ranked second among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the United Nations 2030 Development Agenda, which proclaims - “End hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”. Globally, 800 million out of 7.6 billion people suffer from hunger. Although the number has decreased in recent decades, many of these people come from developing countries. By 2050, there will be approximately 9–10 billion people in the world— meaning an additional 1.6 billion people to feed, with the need to provide about 60–70% more food than is now being produced, to ensure food availability for everyone. An existing agricultural production system which provides an abundant, affordable, and safe food supply and many industrial and consumer products, while faced with decreasing agricultural land, less water for irrigation, rising energy and labour costs, and major grain crops that have already reached a yield plateau. Natural disasters, along with climate change-related extreme weather events, transboundary plant pests and diseases, and other emerging threats continue to provoke crises in agricultural and food systems and impact productivity and human health. Hence, it will indeed be a daunting task. The Global Food Security Index (GFSI) provides a measure of food security at the country level, as influenced by culture, environment and geographic location. The GFSI informs food systems around the world with a common framework for understanding the root causes and risks of food insecurity, at the core of which are affordability, availability, quality and safety. Indisputably, a circular economy implementation and more environment-friendly agriculture landscape would enhance our score on the global food security index.
Keywords
Publication history
- Received
- Accepted
- Published online
How to cite
Muhammad, I.I. (2018). Food sustainability and security: 2050 global food challenge. Asia-Pacific Journal of Food Safety and Security, 4(4), 10-15.