Dr. Amit Roy, IFDC president and CEO, discusses challenges to ensuring food security and reducing poverty:
“The United Nations Population Division estimates that the global population is more than 6.8 billion and could reach 9.2 billion by 2050. More than 95 percent of the population growth is occurring in developing countries, which already account for the majority of the global population. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), there are more than one billion hungry people on Earth – about one-seventh of the planet’s total population. The world’s ability to feed its growing population is a serious problem, and solutions will be difficult to achieve.
The world faces two great challenges in the quest to ensure food security and reduce poverty. First, agricultural production on existing low-intensity farmland must be increased through the adoption of high-yielding varieties of grains, an increase in the correct use of nutrients (particularly fertilizer) and other inputs, better farm management and greater market access. Simultaneously, the global agricultural community must lead the effort to conserve the earth’s limited resources and minimize agricultural pollution…”
