Huge challenge to feed growing world

It took 10,000 years for farmers to lift global food production to current levels, but the sector might have to double output in the coming decades to feed the world's growing population, an agribusiness leader said recently.

Ballance Agri-Nutrients chief executive Larry Bilodeau said with an extra two billion people needing to be fed by 2030, food producers would have to double output despite the loss of productive land and expected rise in extreme-weather events because of climate change.

• Fertiliser price could climb

"It's taken us about 10,000 years to lift global food production to its present level - now we are suddenly going to have to try to double that output in just a couple of decades," he said.

While fertilisers would have a role, he said the need to grow more food did not translate to greater use.

"There is no justification for applying too much fertiliser, but we can help in determining the precise nutrient mix to apply to individual crops or paddocks," he said in a statement.

Manufactured fertilisers improve crop yields by up to 60%, according to a United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation fertiliser programme trial in 40 countries.

"Because of the level of production required for crop farmers to respond adequately to market demand, organic farming is also not an option on a global scale.

"Organic farms are typically less intensive than other farms and less productive," Mr Bilodeau said.

Improved seed genetics to produce plants more resistant to drought, heat, wind and insects would also assist, as would scientific advances to improve and sustain soil fertility.

"It's not like we have any other choice. We either feed the world or look on as millions starve."

He said a report by the aid agency Oxfam released late last year titled "Suffering the Science - climate change, people and poverty" warned that climate change could reverse 50 years of work to end poverty and create what it called "the defining human tragedy of this century".

The world's food supply would rely on the use of fertiliser.

"Without it we would face the choice of having to halve the global population or double the amount of land under farming. Clearly, neither is an option. Smarter use of fertilisers and increased scientific involvement in agriculture are the only ways we can feed the world."

The numbers
- Each year the world's farmers produce about 6 billion tonnes of food.
- Each year 7 billion people eat that food.
- By 2030 the world's population was expected to increase by 2 billion.
- Generally considered that food production may have to double by 2030.

- Source Ballance Agri-Nutrients