FAO Calls for 70 percent Rise in Food Production by 2050

Agricultural production will need to increase by 70 percent by the year 2050 in order to cope with the pressures of climate change, a growing world population, and limited resources, according to the first-ever UN report on land, water scarcity, and food.

The report, released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on 28 November, found that many of the countries that will need to produce food for feeding this population are, consequently, the countries facing the most land degradation.

About 40 percent of degraded lands lie in regions with high poverty rates, where small-scale farmers must pay the price for unsuitable land. “The distribution of land and water resources does not favour those countries that need to produce more in the future,” the report states.

These pressures have already led to the beginnings of a degradation process - with the report estimating that 25 percent of the earth’s lands are degraded; 1.6 billion hectares of land are currently used to grow crops. With these lands suffering a large toll, governments and organisations will have to find ways to incentivise sustainable agricultural procedures, the UN agency noted.