It might be possible to feed approximately one billion people without increasing production through organizing food production systems to divert more agricultural wastes and residues to animal feed.

Positive changes to the system

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Currently, nearly a third of the yield of cereal crops is utilized as animal feed, and around a quarter of fish that are caught aren't used for human use, as per Sciencedaily.

A team led by Matti Kummu, an associate professor of global water and food issues at Aalto, looked at the possibility of employing crop waste and food waste in livestock and aquaculture production, freeing up the material that may be used to feed people.

With these adjustments, up to 10% to 26% of all cereal production and 11% of the present seafood supply, or 17 million tons of fish, maybe diverted from animal feed to human consumption.

The increases in the food supply could range between 6 and 13 percent in terms of calories and between 9 and 15 percent in terms of protein, depending on the scenario.

That might not seem like much, but Vilma Sandström of Aalto University, who is the study's first author, estimates that it would feed up to one billion people.

These results complement prior work by Kummu's team on minimizing food loss along the supply chain, from manufacturing to storage and waste generated by consumers.

In that study, we demonstrated that halving food loss and waste would result in a 12% increase in the amount of food available. That would add around one-quarter more food when combined with the use of byproducts as feed, he claims.

There would be a decrease in animal productivity because of some of the modifications, such as feeding crop leftovers to livestock, but the researchers took that into account in their analysis.

Another difficulty is that the human-edible food now employed in aquaculture and animal production differs from what people are accustomed to eating.

Overcoming these obstacles, though, might yield significant benefits. A few supply chain modifications would be necessary to realize these benefits.

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Increasing the global food production capacity

There are numerous approaches to enhance food production and end food insecurity. There are low-tech options that are inexpensive but can considerably enhance food production: Other methods necessitate the use of advanced technology and hefty financial outlays to boost the world's food supply, as per Internet Geography.

When irrigation is used, additional water is sent to agricultural areas in which the water supply is unstable or scarce. Increased crop yields brought on by more water mean higher income.

This lessens food insecurity and poverty. Lakes and rivers may supply irrigation water. Desalination plants in some places, like Israel, may convert saltwater into freshwater for use in agriculture.

Irrigation is less popular in Sub-Saharan Africa where the expense of investment and low, unpredictable rainfall is particularly prohibitive.

Only 3.5% of the land in this region is irrigated. Irrigation is frequently utilized in arid or semi-arid areas such as southern Europe and North America. In contrast, up to 33% of cropland in Asia is irrigated.

In aeroponics, plants are grown without soil in a confined environment while suspended in the air, feeding on water and nutrients sprayed as a fine mist onto the roots and stems. when more oxygen is available to their roots.

Plants are grown hydroponically in a nutrient-rich water bath. This method can be used to cultivate a variety of crops, including lettuce and tomatoes.

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