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According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nation (FAO), the total worldwide population will reach 8 billion people by 2025 and 9.6 billion people by 2050 (Tzounis et al. in Biosyst Eng 164:31–48, 2017; Singh and Mondal in Biotechnology for sustainable agriculture—emerging approaches and strategies. Woodhead Publishing, Elsevier, 2018). Health and well-being of the continuously growing world population depend mainly on adequate food quality and supply. In addition to higher global food demands, the people want to have as much as possible healthy produced food products at affordable prices. These facts make the agri-food industry one of the largest worldwide industries. The major changes in the agri-food sector are driven by population growth, urbanization, climate, and economic changes. Population growth and urbanization make a challengeable suitable distribution of land needed for human habitation and agricultural land. The production of increased amounts of healthy food at reasonable prices with the sustainable use of the planet’s limited resources is putting the huge pressure on the global agri-food sector. Alongside increased food demands, scarcity of arable land and water resources, as well as climate changes represent the biggest challenges to sustainable agriculture and food industry in the 21st Century (Chen and Yada in Trends Food Sci Technol 22:585–594, 2011; Davis et al. in Glob Environ Change 39:125–132, 2016). The intensive work and cooperation of all agri-food parties, as well as governments and business, are required in order to realize sustainable agriculture and food sector and meet demanding doubled up food production by 2050. |
