With the global population expected to increase almost a inquiring within the next 40 years, many international scientists and agricultural policymakers are worried about the lasting power of farmers to produce enough food to feed 9 billion potential mouths. Week Western agricultural policies have relied on farm loans to revitalize major agricultural reforms, some United Nations officials presume true that international food policies need to notice substantial changes in order to prevent global famine and political unrest.
The threat of global famine is omnipresent in many countries. Despite the expansion of access to farm loans and farm credit by several Western nations, many international farmers still have trouble feeding their families. Even with access to government subsidies, technological backwardness and poor climate often hinders agricultural production. Agricultural loans and farm credit alone, it seems, cannot solve global food problems. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, over 950 million people worldwide are hungry. The ramifications of hunger can be widespread. From 2007 - 2008, the world experienced over 60 food riots. Farm loans and agricultural production overseas helped ease hunger in certain counties, but food insecurity remains a major problem. In 2010 - 11, for example, food riots in Tunisia sparked a revolution that toppled the Tunisian government and spread across much of the Arab World.
According to the FAO, agricultural loans and expanded access to credit may not be enough to guarantee international food security. While the world has enough natural resources to feed its growing population, protecting fragile ecosystems may make or break efforts to fight hunger. In California, for example, rapid expansion of agricultural projects, partly spurred by easy access to farm loans, has drained aquifers and may lead to long - term production problems. Keeping this problem in mind, the UN has encouraged Western nations to protect the environment as a way to protect agriculture. To this end, UN officials have argued that farm loans designed to encourage sustainable agricultural production are key to combating global hunger. UN officials have urged major world powers like the United States to encourage the development of sustainable farming, hoping that techniques pioneered in developed nations could be exported to the Third World.
Farm loans and farm policy designed to protect fragile ecosystems have also been trumpeted as a necessary mode of agricultural reform. Faced with a rapidly changing climate, many farmers across the world have seen their production dwindle in the face of drought and severe weather. Agriculture loans and farm subsidies that encourage conservation and stimulate scientific exploration and development may help limit the damage caused by these climatological changes. Without these reforms, experts warn, the world may face a Malthusian disaster over the next several decades.
