The relationship between population and food is an eternal concern of human beings. Human history reveals a repetition of shift between collapse balance and its recovery. After World War II, however, the global food production capacity achieved a historically remarkable breakthrough despite the precarious political climate under the cold war.
In the meantime, world population also began to show unprecedented increases.
The annual average growth in world population over the fifteen years from the 1960's to the first half of the 1970's reached 2%. The figure has since declined to as low as 1.48% today (1990 to 1995). Worldwide food production, on the other hand, recorded an annual increase of 3%, far higher than that of population, over the thirty-five years from 1950 to 1984. This manifested the likelihood that men would no longer have to suffer from food shortage, a deep-seated threat to their life.
During the decade from 1984 to 1993, however, grain production suddenly fell to as low as an annual increase of 1 %. Scientific technology that had enabled extraordinary increase of food production began to show its inability to maintain the low of increasing returns shit to diminishing returns and natural restrains is now emerging.
Imbalance between population and food does not simply refer to certain local areas or nations. It is the key to the survival of all human beings in the face of rapidly increasing global population. World population of 5.8 billion (1996), an annual increase of over 80 million, nearly 10 billion by 2050, which are terrible figures thrashing the survival of human being.
900 million people in the world are reported to the human crisis from every possible angle with the cooperation of many specialists. Based on Asian population in particular, we have forecast food demand and supply and suggested what measures need to be taken in the future. We hope that this opportune research will be of service as helpful guideline.
Finally, allow me to express my sincere thanks to The Nippon Foundation (Ms. Ayako Sono, Chairman) and United Nations Population Fund (Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director) for their immense support on the preparation of this report.
