Global Food Challenges | Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Population projections suggest that the world will have at least nine billion people by 2050. At the same time 3 billion new people will move into cities and will have to become depended on food imports.This together with changing diets and food conversion into biofuel means that we will have to increase food production by at least 50% between now and 2050.

To meet the food demand for 9 billion people we need to dramatically increase global food production.

Global Food Production

What are the largest food commodities produced globally (in metric tons/year)?
What food commodities have increased the most between 2000 and 2020?

The table below shows that we produce twice as much sugar (cane & beet sugar) than any other type of food. The next highest commodities are maize, wheat, rice, milk, oil palm fruit, potatoes and soybeans. Over the past 20-years the largest increases in production have been in oil palm fruit, maize, soybeans and chickens. Overall, the increases in soybeans and maize production can be attributed to the increasing global demand for meat.

Key Food Producing Countries

In 2020 China and India combined made up about 38% of the global population and they are the largest individual food producers. Until recently they have generally been able to produce sufficient food to meet their countries food demand. As shown in figure 1 below, the two countries combined produce more rice, eggs, pork and goat meat that would be required to meet the average requirement by the population. All other basic staple crops and meat are below the average % of the population. As the economy in these countries improves, diet and consumption will change and they will require more food, since arable land is limited, water resources are stresses, and increase climatic variability is making local production more vulnerable.
In contrast, eleven countries that make up 12% of the global population produce between 25-60% of the global livestock products and 23-88% of basic staple crops like potatoes, wheat, sugar, rapeseed, maize and soybeans. This suggests that these eleven countries will play a key role in the challenges to meet the global food demands by 2050.

Food Production by China & India Production from 11 Countries

A Comparison of Major Food Production in China, India and the USA

In 2020, India produced between 3-24% of the global production of the 6 crops and 1-12 % of the 7 livestock products. China produced 5-38% of the 7 global crops and5-48 of the Global livestock product. The USA produced 1-32% of the crops and 1-18% of the livestock products.. Since India and China have similar population numbers this shows that China is a much higher food producer than India. The USA which is also a large food producer has a population which is 4.5 times smaller than China & India (See figures below).

2020 Food Production by China & India 2020 Food Production by China & USA

Changes in Food Production in China Between 2000-2020

China has been successful to increase most of the livestock products but the production of stable crops has mostly stagnated. This shows a change in diets towards more meat consumption.