Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK, Oct. 16 - Global food demand will double by 2050 and research in increasing agricultural production will be key to feeding the world's population, according to agricultural and environmental experts speaking at the International Policy Council meeting at Stratford-Upon-Avon in England Monday and Tuesday.
These increased food needs will largely come from developing countries and production will need to be increased using less water and land than the world is currently using, they added.
"There is no way Asia or the Middle East will be self-sufficient in food," said Bob Thompson, agricultural policy expert with the University of Illinois.
While the world's population is forecast to grow by 40% to about 9.1 billion people by 2050, including a 33% rise to 5.2 billion people in Asia, he added that this is only part of the problem.
Thompson said that as incomes rise between $2/day and $10/day people eat more meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, edible oils, which causes rapid growth in raw agricultural commodities.
He added that after $10/day people start buying more processed and more packaged food.
In China, 46.7% of the population is still living on less than $2 a day and 16% on less than $1 a day. Large percentages of India's and Indonesia's populations are also living on under $2/day, said Thompson.
Jikun Haung, director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy said since the early 1990s two-thirds of the world's meat output growth has been in Asia.
Thompson added that while doom and gloom forecasts have been made for centuries, a 150-year downward trend in the real price of grains has been seen as advances in agriculture have generated a rise in productivity.
Haung said higher commodity prices are raising farmers' incomes, which is increasing income distribution. Genetically Modified cotton and rice will likely also help raise incomes as fewer inputs are needed, he added.
Martin Parry, chairman of the Impact of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that climate change is likely to reduce potential agricultural output longer term and increase global hunger.
To help offset this Parry said technology such as crop breeding for new climates and management farming systems that use less water are needed.
"Adaptation is needed now," said Parry.