World Population Clock: 7.8 Billion People (2020)

It is projected that by the end of the 21st century, the projection of the world population would be around 11 billion (Roser, 2016). The increase was associated with more than 400 percent over the 20th century. In the year 2060, there will be an estimate of more than 9 billion due to high fertility rate. The growth is considered slow as compared to the growth rate in the previous century. Perhaps the reason is that of new technologies in family planning that is affected by the economic and social issues. The primary determinants of the population growth are the life expectancy and fertility rates. The improvement in medication has increased life longevity as well 

Regarding health, the population growth in the world influences how the diseases are spread and cause more mortality in many countries in the world. According to the World Health Organization, the leading causes of deaths is the chronic illness. These are preventable and curable diseases like heart and lung diseases. In particular, chronic diseases like Cancer have increased cases in America over the past years. Chronic diseases are preventable and sometimes curable, this includes the non- communicable disease, heart disease, and diabetes. In a real sense, the prevalence of the chronic diseases is due to increase while cases of infectious diseases reducing because governments and global agency have put stringent measures to reduce cases of infectious diseases that include the HIV/AIDS. Chronic diseases are more likely to increase in prevalence as the population grows due to factors of macroeconomics and macro social influencing the riskiness of the spread of the chronic diseases (Stuckler, 2008). First, with the globalization and global trade markets, the developing countries may opt for cheaper and processed packages of food to be imported into their respective countries. The processed foods are likely to cause the chances of chronic diseases. Also as the population grows, there is more likely that there is increased population income level which might put a change in the consumption of food and changes in lifestyle mainly in developing countries. It is also noted that technological change has affected the way people in the countries work, it brings out the urban setting in developing countries which furthered influenced the food price that encourages more workers to eat outside than in homes (Stuckler, 2008). In recognition of the fact, it means that globalization has changed the dietary dependencies, Foreign Direct Investment has fostered more production of food and beverages that are unhealthy. Countries that are likely to have the problem of chronic diseases are the developing countries. In these countries, there is little awareness about the risks of the chronic diseases and lack of access to proper medical facilities that cure these diseases which are the reason why there are more cases of chronic diseases in low—income countries than it is in high-income countries. 

As the population also increases the challenges of food and supply is affected. First, the projections would hurt the need for more land to accommodate the population. This could mean more investment in housing and social amenities would happen as supposed to investment in agricultural practices. Economic factors like the utilization of scarce resources would force many governments to focus on solving important issues than food supply. An example could be the need to improve the economies through investments in infrastructural developments that would encourage employment for the growing population (Population Action International, 2011). The impact of agricultural practices will influence the supply of food in the market. It could be the reason why countries known for the delivery of farm produce are importing from food reserves around the world. As the issue of the provision of food more likely to be affected, the nutrition is also concerned. Low and middle-income countries are likely to have nutritional problems considering it influenced by the food supplies. Countries in Africa and Asia have cases of malnutrition amongst the children and the vulnerable because of the tough economic times, and they cannot purchase nor plant nutritious food which is caused by high inflation rates and cases of famine in low-income countries. High-income countries have their economies smoothly growing, and most population are capable of purchasing the foods and more aware of their nutritional foods. 

Mitigating the real issues of the food insecurity has both short-term and long-term policies. First, the governments like the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is to maintain the need for social food aid programs for emergencies and extended period for the hardest hit. Food-aid should not only be the solution, but in developing countries, there should be an integrated development agenda in both the agricultural and industrial sectors. An increase in investment in agriculture will increase food productivity. The research and development of drought-resistant plants have come a long way to increase productivity during the hardest hit famine in countries thought to be agricultural. Governments and other world governmental agencies have also noted that there is the need to control the population growth to mitigate the issues of food insecurity and malnutrition. Global research institute like the Food Policy and Research Institute have suggested to governments that slower growth rate could significantly lower malnutrition when there is increased high production of agricultural products, and further high economic growth (Rosegrant, Paisner, Meijer and Witcover, 2001). The population trends have involved an increased demand for food currently and the decades to come. In the Philippines, the government has encouraged the use of contraceptive to control child births among the couples and given women power in the leadership of the community to foster future a controlled population growth which systematically improves the food security in the future of the economy of the country. There are numerous use other policies that government globally to improve the food supply. In the event the global population projection is higher than expected, these policies are highly likely to change regarding the government priorities on the population health and more importantly the agricultural sector. The chances of the drastic changes in the population in the year 2060 could be low because there is increasing awareness about family planning and the high economic growth in most countries. 

As the population grows, policies on the utilization of the resources become a great subject of the government's strategic plans. Cases of chronic diseases have been affected by the population growth, the supply of food has become subject to food insecurity and malnutrition amongst the developing countries. Such issues can be addressed by encouraging policies on family planning and l agenda in the health and agricultural sectors. 

Reference 

Population Action International (2011) Why Population Matters to Food Security. Author. Retrieved from https://pai.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/PAI-1293-FOOD_compressed.pdf 

Rose grant, MW, MS Paisner, S Meijer and J Witcover (2001). 2020 Global food outlook . Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. 

Roser, M. (2016). Future World Population. Our World in Data. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/future-world-population-growth/ 

Stuckler, D. (2008). Population causes and consequences of leading chronic diseases: a comparative analysis of prevailing explanations. The Milbank Quarterly, 86(2), 273-326