THERE has been good and bad news this week on the world鈥檚 food prospects.
At a major food summit in Rome, Italy, on 12 October, the UN鈥檚 will show that farming output in sub-Saharan Africa grew by 3.5 per cent last year. Following decades of decline, this promises the rosiest outlook for many years. The FAO estimates that the region has 700 million hectares of unoccupied land fit for farming.
But further ahead, child malnutrition worldwide will increase by 20 per cent by 2050 as crop yields fall through climate change, warns a report from the in Washington DC. Sub-Saharan Africa and south-east Asia will be worst hit, as rising temperatures and dwindling water supplies drive down wheat and rice yields by 30 and 15 per cent respectively. 鈥淭here will be 25 million more malnourished children in 2050 than if climate change hadn鈥檛 happened,鈥� says study author Gerald Nelson.
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