Prospects for world food security and distribution

Abstract

Despite global availability of food, the world is not food secure: in the late 1980s, over 780 million people were undernourished, more than 180 million children underweight, and around 1.1 billion people living in poverty. As almost 100 million people are added to the world’s population every year in the next quarter century, it is clear that whether enough food is available to feed all people and whether all people have access to the available food in needed quantities depends on actions the world community takes today. IFPRI projections suggest that the gap between production and consumption will widen in all developing countries by 2020. The better-off countries will be able to fill the gap through commercial imports, but the poorer countries will lack sufficient foreign exchange to avert widespread food insecurity. Agricultural development, by producing more food and ensuring better access to food via employment creation and income growth, is the key to improving world food security. The long lag time between investment in agricultural development and corresponding improvements in food security require that a commitment be made now to improve world food security, otherwise many more people will go hungry and malnourished in coming years.