The Long-Term Food Outlook for India

Projections indicate that by the middle of the next century the population of India will exceed that of China, and the country\u27s rate of food consumption will increase. By contrast, Indian agricultural production has slowed significantly in the 1990s. Because the growth rates of consumption and production are moving in opposite directions, policymakers and researchers should be concerned with analyzing the food outlook for India. This study provides long-term demand and supply projections for cereals including wheat, rice, corn, sorghum, and other grains

Dissemination of Cephalosporin Resistance Genes between Escherichia coli Strains from Farm Animals and Humans by Specific Plasmid Lineages

Third-generation cephalosporins are a class of β-lactam antibiotics that are often used for the treatment of human infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria, especially Escherichia coli. Worryingly, the incidence of human infections caused by third-generation cephalosporin-resistant E. coli is increasing worldwide. Recent studies have suggested that these E. coli strains, and their antibiotic resistance genes, can spread from food-producing animals, via the food-chain, to humans. However, these studies used traditional typing methods, which may not have provided sufficient resolution to reliably assess the relatedness of these strains. We therefore used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to study the relatedness of cephalosporin-resistant E. coli from humans, chicken meat, poultry and pigs. One strain collection included pairs of human and poultry-associated strains that had previously been considered to be identical based on Multi-Locus Sequence Typing, plasmid typing and antibiotic resistance gene sequencing. The second collection included isolates from farmers and their pigs. WGS analysis revealed considerable heterogeneity between human and poultry-associated isolates. The most closely related pairs of strains from both sources carried 1263 Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) per Mbp core genome. In contrast, epidemiologically linked strains from humans and pigs differed by only 1.8 SNPs per Mbp core genome. WGS-based plasmid reconstructions revealed three distinct plasmid lineages (IncI1- and IncK-type) that carried cephalosporin resistance genes of the Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL)- and AmpC-types. The plasmid backbones within each lineage were virtually identical and were shared by genetically unrelated human and animal isolates. Plasmid reconstructions from short-read sequencing data were validated by long-read DNA sequencing for two strains. Our findings failed to demonstrate evidence for recent clonal transmission of cephalosporin-resistant E. coli strains from poultry to humans, as has been suggested based on traditional, low-resolution typing methods. Instead, our data suggest that cephalosporin resistance genes are mainly disseminated in animals and humans via distinct plasmids

Necesidades de comercio mundial de cereales para el año 2030

Se reflexiona en este artículo sobre la posible evolución a largo plazo del comercio mundial agroalimentario, ilustrado por el caso de los cereales. El autor examina en qué regiones pueden incrementarse las necesidades de importación y en qué cantidades y dónde pueden generarse los excedentes exportables necesarios para atenderlas. El escenario de la evolución de la demanda mundial de cereales apunta a un crecimiento efectivo de la misma, a medida de que cada vez más países en desarrollo se embarquen en un proceso de crecimiento económico sostenido y muchos de estos países, en particular los más poblados de Asía, manifiesten un limitado potencial de crecimiento de su producción doméstica. Sin embargo, las principales regiones exportadoras podrán seguir atendiendo las necesidades de importación apuntadas. En los últimos treinta años se prevé un crecimiento del consumo sustancial pero no excesivo, y mucho menor de lo que habría supuesto un incremento similar al registrado en las últimas tres décadas, cuando las importaciones se cuadruplicaron

World agriculture towards 2030/2050: the 2012 revision

Current UN projections indicate that world population could increase by 2.25 billion people from today's levels, reaching 9.15 billion by 2050. At the global level, agricultural production and consumption in 2050 are projected to be 60 percent higher than in 2005/07. The perceived limit to producing food for a growing global population remains a source of debate and preoccupation despite the agriculture sector's historical ability to meet such demand. This paper is the latest in the series by the Global Perspective Studies unit within FAO, which aims to provide insights into how food and agriculture may develop, between now and 2050, making note of key assumptions and uncertainties. Such a long look forward is inherently burdened with uncertainty, but the methodical inclusion of the range of technical expertise found throughout FAO on likely paths of development and constraints results in an outlook that is widely used for planning and framing debates in food and agriculture

The Long-Term Food Outlook for India

Projections indicate that by the middle of the next century the population of India will exceed that of China, and the country's rate of food consumption will increase. By contrast, Indian agricultural production has slowed significantly in the 1990s. Because the growth rates of consumption and production are moving in opposite directions, policymakers and researchers should be concerned with analyzing the food outlook for India. This study provides long-term demand and supply projections for cereals including wheat, rice, corn, sorghum, and other grains.</p

Long-Term Food Outlook for India, The

Projections indicate that by the middle of the next century the population of India will exceed that of China, and the country's rate of food consumption will increase. By contrast, Indian agricultural production has slowed significantly in the 1990s. Because the growth rates of consumption and production are moving in opposite directions, policymakers and researchers should be concerned with analyzing the food outlook for India. This study provides long-term demand and supply projections for cereals including wheat, rice, corn, sorghum, and other grains.