Although several natural and human factors like climate change, crop diseases and pest attacks, farmland conversion, aridity and deficiency of irrigation water, mismanagement etc. are some of the major threats to future food security, but which single factor can be more threatening and how food security can be ensured. Researchers and concerned experts are expected to put forth convincing answer of the issue.
Overpopulation is the biggest threat to future food security.
Hello Asad; You have provided a reasonable list of the widely recognized problems. The one missing from most discussions of the technical problems is very simply, there are too many mouths to feed already and the population is still growing. No technical solutions can solve the problems without knowing how many people will need to be fed.
The population has doubled in my lifetime - 80 years. I doubt that another doubling can be accomodated in any humane way. We'd better come to grips with that problem. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
Nice question. But I am unable to identify that one biggest threat that you want identified. It is possibly like the Corona Virus, a new disease that could go viral and affect global croplands.
Thanks James Des Lauriers for providing food for thought.
Yes it is very true that there is unprecedented increase in food eating mouths and this factor can't be ignored. Until and unless we know the exact number of eating mouths, we can't manage their food.
Hi,
Recently, economic and mathematical models have been applied to address food security conditioning factors in latitudes that surprisingly, although very different from those in the region where I live, present interesting observations in common. Food imports and the strategies to replace them, in this sense, seem to be a recurring theme. Considering them the greatest threat may be daring, however, from the point of view of the producer and the countries' trade policies, they constitute an important element to take into account.
There are countries in which the volume of product consumed comes from 50% or more (with a tendency to increase) of imports, which clearly reflects an unsatisfied internal demand, in which, however, there are elements of low profitability of production that introduces complexity to the problem.
Rogachev (2015), addresses this problem very emphatically, and details the use of the mathematical models that I mentioned before. You can check his work here if you're interested. (http://bit.ly/327GWp7)
J.
In my point of view i think the use of agrochemicals and synthetic chemicals is the biggest threat to food security. Because of their persistance nature they will damage the whole food chain
don't overthink and no need to go that far...
Human beings themselves
Asad Ali Khan
The global population pressure which in return increase food demand, water scarcity and decreased suitable land for cultivation as a result of climate change and variability. The issue of food losses and waste etc
There will be No threat for food security because this universe was creaTed in a balance #JustMyBelieve :)
Scarce water resources and climate change, in addition to the huge increase in the world's population.
I do not think climate change is the main problem or threat. We can challenge it by decrease gas emissions which is already being done by many countries around the world.
Soil degradation is one problem, but still not the major impact. We can grow vertically and organically to save lands.
Water scarcity is another issue which can be solved by awareness and using new technologies like hydroponics.
As a result, over population cannot be the obstacle towards achieving food security as long as we live in ideal world. Food security is an economic-political decision; in fact, it is not only production, climate and soil etc.
The main argument is food distribution. there is enough food in the world, but this world is not an ideal world to live. It needs morality-based economic political decision.
However, food security problems are there in place. Several areas of the world are facing food shortage problems. Thus we definitely need to seek the exact reasons so that food security can be assured.
There are numerous threats to future food security. In my viewpoint, the most prominent (with respect to our part of the world-South Asia) is the over-population and scarcity of food resources (commercialization of cultivated lands). Morevoer, changes in livelihood patterns and rural-urban migration is another threat to future food security.
It is a complex question, but certainly that deforestation and, hence, climate change, is one of most serious problem. This problem afects all native and traditional people and villages around the world, increasing demand for food and, at the same time, decreasing farmers' production capacity. In these sense, threats to indigenous territories represent a great problem.
Thanks Moacir Haverroth for your valuable answer about an important issue.
A huge risk is the economic-political machine. If we don't have seed sovereignty, we will not have food security. Diminishing biodiversity also threatens resiliency - no insects - no food. Until the agriculture system recognizes the earth as a partner and not an inexhaustible resource for taking, and politically, if we recognize and incentive farmers for farming right (take it out of a commodity stream and think Regenerative Agriculture) we are down an destructive path to food in-security.
The greatest threat to food security in the future is the large increase in the population and the limited areas suitable for growing crops to produce food for them, as well as environmental pollution and exacerbating soil salinity problems in arid and semi-arid areas, which increases the risk of a shortage of food quantities prepared annually for these people.
REDUCING: Deforestation, Human Population and most importantly Food WASTAGE, which according to reliable sources can be up to 40%, this may exceed the amount needed to eliminate world's hunger.
read my article meybe help you
Article THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN FOOD SECURITY
Our continued dependence to the narrow list of crop and livestock species. We must advocate and start diversifying our diet to lessen production pressure on major food crops, as an effect, we can halt excessive inflation resulting to equitable access to food by minimum wage earners, achieve nutrition security while impacting positively on biodiversity conservation through utilization.
Hello all; All of the topics identified so far are important aspects of the food problem but only one, population growth, MUST be addressed or all the rest are futile. Hopeful, Jim Des Lauriers
I think there are many obstacles, including pollution, fungal and insect diseases, and water shortages
Yes Abdulnabi Abdulameer Matrood all these are among the list of future food security threats.
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