Sustainable intensification in agriculture as a factor of achieving food security

Katarina Đurić, Zoran Njegovan
The report also states that India is expected to become the world’s largest country, passing 
China, when both countries will have population of 1.45 billion by 2028. After that, it is 
expected that India’s population will continue to grow, while China’s is expected to start 
decreasing. Furthermore, according to the UN projections, Nigeria’s population is expected 
to surpass that of the United States by 2050. 
In contrast to developing countries, Europe is facing growing aging population. Namely, 
Europe’s population is projected to decline by 14% by 2050. Similarly to the situation in 
previous decades, the most dynamic population growth is projected and expected in regions 
most vulnerable to food security. 
The expected growth of the world population, together with the intention to eradicate hunger 
and poverty in the most jeopardized regions of the world, prove the need for the global growth 
of agricultural production. However, increasing pressure on the environment, seen through 
growing land degradation, pollution of water resources, more prominent climate change and 
other adverse effects, are the reasons why agricultural production should be based solely on 
a sustainability principle. Therefore, the sustainable development concept should become a 
new philosophy of development, including not only economic, but also, moral, social and 
health aspects (Pejanović, 2015).
Production growth and yield increase should be some of the responses to a growing demand, 
but not the only ones (Goldfray, Garnett, 2014). Following the sustainability principle, in 
addition to the yield increase, it is important to achieve the following: 
- change the model of demand in terms of demand growth for so-called: resource-
intensive food produces such as meat and dairy products,
- rationality in the consumption in terms of food waste reduction, 
- establish the measures of food (agrarian) policy which would facilitate the
improvement of food system efficiency and ensure availability of food for everyone
(Tilman et al., 2011).
Nonetheless, it is unlikely that there is any other solution, apart from the increase in yield 
and production, which could solve the problem of food insecurity in the world. The increase 
in yield is the key factor for elimination of hunger and poverty, especially from the aspect 
of developing countries. Nowadays, the increase in yield is a number one requirement in 
almost all low-income countries. However, in the long-run, temporary growth of yield and 
production should not be the main goal, but creating conditions for continuous improvement 
of production potentials in order to meet food demand in the future. Furthermore, every 
option offered as a solution should be environmentally acceptable, that is, sustainable.