In spite of the advances made in agriculture, many people around the world still go hungry. Why is this the case? What can be done about this problem?
Food crisis has incessantly continued to haunt mankind despite radical improvements in farming methods and technological interventions. This predicament can be attributed to several factors, and scientists and policy makers across the world are struggling to locate practical solutions to surmount this impediment.
A major hurdle to rendering a square meal a day to all across the globe has been a spike in the population. A close analysis reveals that rich bounties of harvest achieved by modern industrial agriculture are being dwarfed/offset by colossal increment in the number of inhabitants. As many commentators suggest, this is leading to another major issue, paucity of arable land due to competition from initiatives for developing dwelling areas, limiting the area that can be bought under cultivation, and seriously hampering any further enhancement in the yields.
Similarly, inability of poverty stricken countries to procure enough nourishment for their natives from highly commercialized global food markets, where prices rule the roost, is adding insult to injury. The rising demand for cereals and grains has led to sky-rocketing of prices that have inflated the food bills, leaving several impoverished economies lurching and facing a dilemma of whether to procure food, or other vital supplies, where the latter wins priority.
Nevertheless, there is still a ray of hope for the hungry human society. Many propose that introducing vertical farming extensively can be a sustainable solution to this pressing issue since this can reduce the need to use vast stretches of land for farming, and also reduce production cost, by virtue of needing lesser water, fertilizers and energy. Hence, global populace is going to grow unabated; thus, human society must focus on finding ways to produce food cheaply and in great abundance so that there is enough food to feed growing numbers.
Overall, scarcity of food is surely a pressing issue in times when society boasts of technological advancements in farming. In the wake of limitations imposed by several factors, there is a need to discover other methods that compliment improvements in the agricultural practices.
