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food and agriculture > factfile
Hunger: the facts
Some 840 million people suffer from chronic hunger. According to FAO estimates, in 1998-2000, there were 799 million undernourished people in the developing countries, 30 million in the countries in transition and 11 million in the industrialized countries. Millions of people, including 6 million children under the age of 5, die each year as a result of hunger. Hunger not only reduces life expectancy. It costs developing countries up to $128 billion a year in productivity losses, according to FAO. ... more
Production: the trends
The pace of growth in food production in the developing world is slowing down, from an annual 2.1 per cent over the past two decades, to a projected 1.6 per cent between now and 2015 and to 1.3 per cent between 2015 and 2030. However this will still outstrip population growth, according to FAO. ... more
Land and population
As world population and the global economy has grown, ever more land has been cleared, drained or irrigated to plant cash crops for export, such as sugar and palm oil, coffee and rubber, or to grow food crops for livestock. ... more
Farming and water
Over two-thirds of the freshwater used by humans each year is used for irrigating crops. In Africa, the river Nile loses 90 per cent of its water to irrigation and other uses before it reaches the Mediterranean. In Asia, which has two-thirds of the world’s irrigated land, 85 per cent of water goes for irrigation. The river Jordan is so heavily used by farmers that only a third of its water makes it as far as the Dead Sea. ... more
Farming and fertilisers
Artificial fertilisers have helped fuel the Green Revolution and increase food supplies. Global fertiliser use rose from 14 million tonnes in 1950 to 145 million tonnes by 1988. ... more
Soil erosion
The soil is among our most precious resources, yet we often take it for granted or destroy it by making it susceptible to soil erosion. In the Philippines, for example, 22 provinces had been reported to have "alarming" soil erosion rate. Among those that had been losing their topsoil were Cebu, Batangas, Marinduque, Ilocos Sur, and La Union. This means that 58 per cent of the country's total land area of 30 million hectares is susceptible to erosion. ... more
Desertification and degraded land
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Seed security
Seed security is a major issue, according to FAO, which points out that 1.5 billion people live on family farms that are still largely dependent on their own sources of seed, saving a portion of what they grow each year to sow the following season. ... more
Going organic
Fears about food safety and the damage caused by the use of agrochemicals has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of land devoted to organic farming. ... more
Conservation agriculture
Conservation agriculture aims to conserve, improve and make more efficient use of natural resources through integrated management of available soil, water and biological resources combined with external inputs. ... more
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