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Population and Environment

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01-09-2006 | Original Paper

Population, nutrition and agriculture

Author: Bernard Gilland

Published in: Population and Environment | Issue 1/2006

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Abstract

The human carrying capacity of the world or a country is considered as a function of food consumption per capita. A method of assessing carrying capacity is described, and it is shown that the world’s population currently exceeds the global carrying capacity, that the population of the less-developed countries (LDCs) exceeds their carrying capacity, and that this situation cannot be expected to change more than marginally in the period up to 2050. It is also shown that a major increase in the global consumption of nitrogen fertilizer will be necessary if world crop production per capita is to be maintained at the current inadequate level.

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Title: Population, nutrition and agriculture
Author: Bernard Gilland
Publication date: 01-09-2006
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Published in: Population and Environment / Issue 1/2006
Print ISSN: 0199-0039
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7810
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-007-0034-9