Contributing to food security
The need to address food security has never been greater and is moving up national agendas around the world. Everyday nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry-even more are malnourished. And this figure could potentially rise with the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050.
What is food security?
The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”.
To feed this growing population, farmers will need to achieve at least a 70 percent increase in food production by 2050. 1 Achieving food security won’t be easy considering the megatrends of growing population, greater affluence, and increasing urbanization. Not only are more people demanding more food, but they want greater variety, including meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables.
While demand for food is growing, farmers' ability to increase productivity is facing unprecedented challenges. Scarcity of water, energy, and land is expected to define food production in the coming decades. Already, agriculture uses 40 percent of the world’s land surface 2 and 70 percent of all available fresh water. 3 Agricultural practices will also need to protect biodiversity through increasing productivity without expanding into natural ecosystems. Further exacerbating the situation is a changing climate that has led to higher temperatures and erratic weather patterns in some areas.
Rural economies in developing countries will feel the biggest impact of these challenges. They will require greater investment in agricultural productivity and profitability to drive socio-economic development and lift people out of poverty and hunger.
Developing a sustainable production system for agriculture
Syngenta believes that farmers can produce enough to meet the world’s needs for food, fuel and fiber and safeguard the only planet we have for future generations – if we take a system-wide approach that links technology, land and people. These three elements build the foundation for a sustainable production system in which strong rural economies and resource efficiency are fundamental to achieving food security.
Our modern agricultural solutions – combined with supporting infrastructure, access to markets, information and financial resources – enables rural economies to increase productivity and improve farm profitability and at the same time have a beneficial impact on water, land, and biodiversity.
This sustainable production system helps farmers earn better incomes, live better lives, and be efficient stewards of the land.
- FAO, “How to feed the world in 2050,”
- World Bank