Abstract
The increasing pace of urbanization in emerging market economies poses a challenge for agricultural production in these countries. On the one hand, agricultural productivity is not keeping pace with the speed of urbanization and growth in food demand and, on the other, the demand for food is highly skewed making for an inordinate amount of food going for non-human consumption and wastage. This paper reviews the trends in urbanization as well as in agricultural productivity and comes to the conclusion that some parts of the world may well be facing a neo-Malthusian future. Policy measures designed to address this situation are considered. Implications for international trade and domestic agricultural policies are also considered.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Barbier, E. B., & Hochard, J. P. (2018). Land degradation and poverty. Nature: Sustainability, 1, 623–631.
Brears, R. (2017). Urban water security. Wiley. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119131755. Accessed 30 Oct 2019.
FAO. (2019). Structural changes in the commodity consumption of food consumption. http://www.fao.org/3/y4252e/y4252e04b.htm. Accessed 12 Nov 2019.
Funk, C., & Brown, M. (2009). Declining per capita agricultural production and warming oceans threaten food security. Food Security, 1, 271–289.
Global Land Outlook. https://knowledge.unccd.int/sites/default/files/2018-06/GLO%20English_Full_Report_rev1.pdf. Accessed 18 Nov 2019.
Hatab, A., Cavinato, M., Lindemer, A., & Lagerkvist, C. (2019). Urban sprawl, food security and agricultural system in developing countries: A systematic review of the literature. Cities, 94(1), 129–142.
Jha, R. (Ed.). (2019). Hunger and malnutrition as major challenges of the 21st century. Singapore: World Scientific Press.
Johnson, D. G. (1997). Agriculture and the wealth of nations. American Economic Review, 87(2), 1–12.
Patni, N., Pillai, S., & Dwivedi, A. (2013). Wheat as a promising substitute for corn for the bioethanol production. Procedia Engineering, 51, 352–362.
Satterthwaite, D., McGranahan, G., & Tacoli, C. (2010). Urbanization and its implication for food and farming. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 365, 2809–2820.
Stavi, H., & Lal, R. (2015). Achieving zero net land degradation: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Arid Environment, 112, 44–51.
Thirtle, C., Lin, L., & Piesse, J. (2003). The impact of research-led agricultural productivity growth on poverty reduction in Africa. Asia and Latin America. World Development, 1(12), 1959–1975.
World Resources Institute. (2019). WRI annual report 2018–19. Available at https://www.wri.org/annualreport/2018-19. Accessed 15 October 2020.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jha, R. (2021). Increasing Pace of Urbanization and Implications for Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture. In: Bali Swain, R., Sweet, S. (eds) Sustainable Consumption and Production, Volume I. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56371-4_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56371-4_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-56370-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-56371-4
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)