Food security for the Asia-Pacific: Smart farming to feed the world

Abstract

The world population is predicted to increase by one billion by 2025 and another billion by 2050. That is nine billion people on the planet by 2050. Distribution of this increase will be unequal, and for developing countries this equates to their gaining the equivalent of a city of about one million every five days between now and 2050. In developing Asia and the Pacific, the economies have grown at more than 7% since 1990 – more than double the global average. The rise in affluence in conjunction with a growing population continues to drive greater demand for more protein-rich food and better nutrition. Food consumption in Asia-Pacific has grown steadily from about 2,300 kilocalories per capita per day in 1990 to in excess of 2,600. But close to a billion people in the region still live in absolute poverty (defined as living on less than $1.25 a day, in 2005 purchasing power parity) and over 500 million remain undernourished.