1. “Will the world starve?” This question was asked in the Economist and has bee
ID: 2495910 • Letter: 1
Question
1. “Will the world starve?” This question was asked in the Economist and has been the topic of recent conferences in Washington, D.C. and in other places. According to the conference participants and others, there were at least two answers, ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. a. Using your knowledge of agriculture, rural development, population trends, technology, public policy and the history of the topic, evaluate both sides of the argument as thoroughly as possible. Then discuss what you think will actually occur in the next half century. As an economist stress the role of prices and market b. Assume you were to be appointed the Minister of Agriculture for Kenya where food production is growing more slowly than the country’s population. Explain the strategy that you would follow to promote agricultural development and growth in the country. What role does agricultural price policy play in this process?
Explanation / Answer
1) Will the world starve in next half a century ?
The swift answer is No, The technology that we are able to acheieve is very high, We clearly are in a period of most productive time in the world.
Agriculture however is facing various threats, The biggest among them is use of agriculture products for purposes other than feeding people or animals. Namely: Corn based ethanol.
Agriculture is the most basic and key sector of the economy and today the biggest threats the agriculture as industry is facing is from rather unlikely source Oil, If oil runs out agriculture will come to grinding halt and production would be stopped completely because most of the modern agriculture depends heavily on machinery, If that machinery stops there are not enough skilled manual labor to do farming.
Even in countries like India bullocks and buffaloes are replaced by tractors, So production from other countries will also stop
Competition for fuel: Corn is grown in large area in United states and it is used for fuel, This will create supply problems for food, if fuel prices hit record high. The best method is to control such practice by stopping use of agriculture land for fuel. this will keep supply untouched.
To overcome challenges even meat consumption which consumes too much nutrients of soil in form of grass can be replaced with vegeterian diet. This will certainly create more supply of food even for 2050.
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