Crop protection vital to feeding 7 billion people

Without effective tools to protect crops against yield losses caused by weeds, pests and diseases, global food production would fall by 40%. (Photo: 'jjelenbaas' Flickr)

The challenge of feeding a global population set to reach 7 billion people this month cannot be met without access to modern crop protection tools. That was the key message delivered by Dominic Dyer, UK Crop Protection Association chief executive, in his keynote speech to the first international AgChem Asia Summit in Shanghai, China today (21 October).

"Since I was last in Shanghai in 2002, the population has increased by over 9 million to 23 million people, which now makes this the largest city in the world. The rapid rise in living standards and urbanisation we are witnessing in China can be seen across the world from countries as far apart as India, Brazil and Turkey,” said Mr Dyer.

"At the end of October the world's population will reach 7 billion, an increase of 5.5 billion since 1950. This means a reduction in the amount of farmland available to feed each person on the planet from 0.5 hectares in 1950, to 0.2 hectares in 2011.

"With agriculture consuming around 70% of the world's water and contributing around 12% to global greenhouse gas emissions, crop protection has a vital role to play in increasing food production, whilst ensuring we make more efficient use of scarce land, water and energy resources.

“Without effective tools to protect crops against yield losses caused by weeds, pests and diseases, global food production would fall by 40%. This would be disastrous for the world, resulting in more famines and disease, loss of wildlife and biodiversity, mass migration of people, wars and terrorism.

“With over 2 billion people facing starvation or malnutrition, and a huge increase in demand for a wider variety of foods in rapidly growing economies such as China, the international community must ensure that access to modern crop protection is at the heart of global food security policies,” concluded Mr Dyer.

Further information:

For further information about the AgChem Asia Summit 2011, visit www.agchemasia.com

For further information contact:

Dominic Dyer, Crop Protection Association: dominic@cropprotection.org.uk