New Frontiers in Desert Research

Abstract

Considerable concern is being expressed regarding the potential of food supplies to maintain pace with present rapid population expansion. Most of this expansion is taking place in the less-developed countries, whose combined populations will reach over 5 billion people by the year 2000 and comprise almost 80% of the world’s population. Some half-billion people are now considered to exist at substandard levels of nutrition, and this number will most probably rise to 700 million or more by the end of the century. Overall food production is expected to rise at a slightly higher rate than world population, but most of the increase will be consumed by the more advanced nations, with little or no benefit to less developed countries (Global 2000 Report). Africa, for example, actually showed a 5% per capita drop in agricultural production from 1971 to 1975. Furthermore, the demand for food in both the industrialized and the developing countries far exceeds the increase in population or in agricultural production. The inequalities of food distribution within these countries are even more extreme, resulting in high levels of malnutrition and starvation. Since it is generally conceded that economic improvement is a precondition for population control, this situation creates a vicious circle endangering world stability in the coming decades. Indeed, many recent studies envision a world population of over 10 billion by 2030, less then fifty years from today.