Is it the alarming rise in population that makes the world more food insecure? Or, it is the phenomenal fall in agricultural production that keeps the world hungry?

• How do you find these views?

Food crisis is real world over. Population rise and fall in production are two of several other reasons that could be attributed to hunger. Of course, these two are just two of those factors.

Let me see how rising population contributes to this issue. It is a fact that when there are much more mouths to be fed than what is there to keep feed them with, food crisis is sure to happen. But, this is not always true. For example; millions of Indians go to bed hungry every day. This is not because India does not have enough grains to feed them. But it doesn’t have a fool-proof Public Distribution System (PDS) in place. For millions, food is not affordable, too. The rich poor divide is the real culprit here.

Moving on to the other poser, I think it is partly true that fall in production leads to food crisis. This situation is necessitated more by emerging non-agricultural opportunities than by anything else. Agriculture as a profession has lost its sheen and new generation is going after white color and blue color jobs. Naturally, production comes down. However, there are instances to prove that many rich countries have developed super productive crops, and they are able to produce surplus food, too. Here again, it is the rich-poor divide that stands on the way of food security.

In brief, it is right to say that the world has all the resources to eliminate food crisis. It is neither rising population nor fall in production that causes it. It is the rich poor divide that makes millions go to hungry beds everyday.

270 words
Jaypeesdoc