Excerpt
WORLD population could stabilize at 10.5 billion by 2110, compared with 4.4 billion at present and a projected 6.2 billion for the year 2000 (14). Much of the increase is expected to occur by the middle of the 21st century, with world population reaching 9.3 billion by 2055.
The significance of these projections for future requirements of food and other agricultural commodities is this: World demand could increase 50 percent in the next 20 years and more than double again in the first half of the next century (8). By the time the world gets reasonably close to population stability, demand for food and other agricultural products could be three times present levels.
The most striking feature of projected population growth is that the share of world population living in developing countries will increase from the present 72 percent to 87 percent in the year 21 10, that is 9.1 billion of the 10.5 billion total.
The stable population of various regions will be reached in different years, ranging from 2030 for Europe …
Footnotes
R. Dudal is director of the Land and Water Development Division for the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, Via della Terme di Caracalla, 00100, Rome, Italy. This article is an edited version of his keynote address at SCSA's 37th annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Copyright 1982 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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