Agriculture, pesticides, food security and food safety (2/2)

5. Would it be possible to feed the world
population and eradicate hunger?
In order to eradicate hunger and poverty, it has been
considered by many authors that key issues to solve are
mostly in the economic realm and would require changes in
world trade and distribution of food resources (Klassen, 1995;
Alexandratos, 1999). Other optimistic prospects, based on
agriculture developments, are defended by the UN Millennium
Project and aim to halve the rate of extreme poverty in a few
years (UN Millennium Project, 2005; Sachs, 2005). Whatever
the development plan adopted, agriculture production needs
to be increased in various regions of the world currently
afflicted with hunger and malnutrition. Various tools have
been suggested and can be called upon, such as:

• Selection of pest resistant and high yield cultivars.
• Rational use of water in irrigation, and prevention of contamination of water with chemical residues.
• Intensified agronomy efforts to produce new varieties, prevent soil erosion, salt intrusion, etc.
• Use of carefully selected species, such as cassava, in soils that are impoverished in nutrients.
• Moderate the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
• Education and training of farmers in the correct use of agrochemicals and protection of soils.
• Application of the precautionary principle in the development, testing and introduction of GMOs in the fields.
• Encourage the development of organic farming and integrated pest management (IPM) to reduce the use of synthetic chemicals.

Certainly, other foodstuffs such as meat, milk and fish,
need similar care. In this regard, programmes supported by
UN agencies (e.g. to control rinder pest, to eradicate the fruit
fly) are of the utmost value (IAEA, 2004). Aquaculture has been
developed in various regions and further developments shall
continue in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Fish from
aquaculture is an important source of protein in many
countries and this activity is developing rapidly (Ahmed and
Lorica, 2002; Thorpe et al., 2006).

Fostering sustainable small scale agriculture, as promoted
by the UN Millennium Project, is helping to put in the hands of
populations of the most impoverished regions the means to
produce their food. If successful, this programme may help to
reduce hunger (Sachs, 2005). However, to eradicate hunger and
under nourishment seems much more difficult.

The successful control of hunger and under nourishment
requires the control of population growth. Despite the
conflicting views about the human carrying capacity of Earth
(Cohen, 2005), over population will not help to solve under
nutrition. Furthermore, technology may not be able to provide
in time miraculous solutions to feed a continuously growing
population (Gilland, 2002).

The agenda of governments and international organizations, therefore, should include renewed efforts to control demographic growth, contain conflicts in order to stabilize the
functioning of society and agriculture activities, support
sustainable agriculture programmes in impoverished regions,
educate agriculturalists in the use of agrochemicals, prevent
soil erosion and degradation of water resources, protect
genetic diversity, and apply the precautionary principle in
the introduction of GMOs. The success of these efforts has to
be achieved at regional level, especially in the most impoverished regions.

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