Can GM crops help in fighting hunger in developing countries ?
Food security is one of the biggest challenges we currently face, and the solution is clear: we must find ways in which to produce more food while continuing to reduce the impact of agricultural practices have on the environment. One of the Millennium Development Goals, committed to by the 189 UN member countries, is to halve hunger between 1990 and 2015. This is a challenging task, since world population is expected to grow by over a third (or 2.3 billion people) between 2009 and 2050. Nearly all of this growth is forecast to take place in the developing countries. This means that feeding a world population of 9.1 billion people in 2050 would require an increase of current overall food production by some 70% (nearly 100% in some developing countries). With limited possibilities for land expansion, 90% of the growth in crop production is expected to result from higher yields and increased cropping intensity. At the same time, agricultural production needs to become more sustainable, re
