Agriculture, food and water - FAO.org

AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND WATER
11
The main sources of food supply
The main source of food for the population of the world is agriculture. The term agriculture,
as broadly used here, also includes livestock husbandry, managed fisheries (aquaculture) and
forestry. The composition of meals changes gradually as demand for food strengthens and lifestyles
change. For those that can afford it, many products that are grown out of season or are exotic
now appear on their local market. What agriculture produces is driven by consumer demand, and
changes in consumer preferences have an influence on the water needed for food production.
It has been estimated that unmanaged natural systems could provide food for 600 million people,
one tenth of the current world population (Mazoyer and Roudart, 1998). Thus, about 90 percent
of the present world population could not be sustained without agriculture. Yet, while few people
live from only fishing, gathering and hunting, these unmanaged, or only loosely managed, natural
food systems provide a strategically important contribution to the nutrition of indigenous people
as well as to the existence and survival of many displaced, poor and marginal people. Except for
marine fisheries, which are monitored, the diffuse reality of food resources directly obtained from
natural ecosystems escapes most data collection and is usually not reflected in agricultural and
economic statistics.
Therefore, the bulk of global food production (cereals, oils, livestock and fish) is dependent upon
a whole range of agricultural systems in which water is a critical factor of production (FAO/
World Bank, 2001).
Major crops
The prominent role of cereals and oil crops
Cereals are by far the most important source of total food consumption as measured in calories. In
developing countries, consumption of cereals thirty years ago was 141 kg/person/year, representing
61 percent of total calories. At present it is 173 kg/person/year and provides 56 percent of calories.
Thus, cereal use has increased, but less than other components of food intake. The fact that the
growth of global demand for cereals is declining reflects diet diversification, as more countries
achieve higher levels of nutrition. However, it is expected that cereals will continue to still supply
more than 50 percent of the food consumed in the foreseeable future.
To satisfy the cereal demand for a growing population using more cereals per capita, the annual
world production of cereals grew by almost a billion tons from 0.94 billion tons in the mid-1960s
to 1.89 billion tons in 1998. In the late 1990s, a slowdown in the growth of world consumption
of cereals was recorded. It was, however, not caused by production constraints but by slowing
demand. The annual world production of cereals is projected by FAO to increase by another