Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Developed
Developing
Developed
Developing
1970
2005
Cereals
Ve getable oils
ugar and sweeteners
Meat
Other
fIguRe 22.3
A color version of this figure follows page 198.
Diet composition: devel-
oped versus developing countries, 1970 and 2005.
demand for higher-value farm products such as animal proteins, fruits, and vegeta-
bles. During 1970 to 2005, daily per capita calorie availability in developing coun-
tries increased by 27%, three times the rate of developed countries. Although cereals
continued to dominate the diet of developing countries, the 8% rate of growth in
cereal consumption was obviously much lower than the overall increase in calorie
consumption of these countries.
In 2005, the cereals' share of the developing country diet was 52%, on average,
compared to 63% in 1970. Within the cereal group, wheat consumption grew rapidly,
57%, reflecting the increased role of traded products in the diet; consumption of rice
and millet declined. From 1970 to 2005, developing countries' per capita consump-
tion of vegetable oils more than doubled (11% share of this diet in 2005), while meat,
milk, and eggs increased by almost 2.6-fold (12% diet share). Sugar and sugar prod-
uct consumption increased by about 60%.
It is important to note that the trends in food availability in developing countries
are highly driven by the economic growth of Asian countries. Rapid income growth,
especially in China and India, boosted food availability of developing countries
as well as global statistics (measured by average calorie intake) to record levels in
recent years. The growth in availability was for all basic food items: cereals, meat,
vegetable oils, and so on. Average daily calorie availability by the developing coun-
tries of Asia climbed 33% since 1970-1972, including China, with growth of nearly
50%, and India at more than 20%.
The benefits of this global growth, however, were not distributed equally among
all countries and regions. In Latin America, for example, a large increase in food
availability in the 1970s had slowed by the 1980s, when calorie intake held steady
at about the world average. SSA has by far the world's lowest intake levels, with per
