By 2050, the human population is estimated to be 9.8 billion. Rapid population growth will continue to be an important impediment to achieving improvements in food security in some countries. Nowadays, 828 million people are suffering from hunger (FAO, 2022).
According to FAO, food security is defined as a situation “when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.
Globally, there are more than 690 million people who are hungry or undernourished and 144 million young children with stunted growth – a number that also flags hidden hunger (FAO et al., 2020). COVID-19 has probably increased the number of undernourished people by between 83 million and 132 million and further compromised the nutritional status of the most vulnerable groups, including poor rural women and children. Globally, one in three women (32.8 percent) of reproductive age is affected by anaemia, a nutritional problem that can be addressed with livestock-derived foods (FAO et al., 2021).
The increasing demand for livestock products will primarily come from developing countries where more people will migrate from rural areas to live in cities. Thus, urbanisation will improve infrastructure including cold chains for households. This will provide more secure access to perishable goods, such as animal products.
FAO estimates that we need 70% more animal products to feed the world by 2050. The improvement of the feed conversion ratio must be one of the key challenges to produce more animal products on earth within the same areas. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, food demand for animal products will likely double from about 200kcal/pers/day in 2000 to around 400kcal/pers/day in 2050.
Constantly challenged, the livestock supply chain will have to take the lead in order to provide enough animal products to developing countries in growing demand. Furthermore, animal livestock production systems must continually adapt in order to beat expected future heat stress conditions. (REFS: 252, 259)
