Agriculture first started about 10,000 years ago when people began to grow crops in the river valleys of the Nile in Egypt,in the Middle East and in India. Today farming employs more people than any other type of work. It is thought that one billion people, that is half the world's workers, earn their living by farming. The problem is how to feed a growing world population of 5.7 billion. For one thing, two thirds of the earth's surface is water, although this does provide a lot of food in the form of fish. Only about 11% of the earth's land surface is suitable for growing crops. And this area is becoming smaller day by day. In China there is only 7% of the land used for growing crops, which feed more than one fourth of the world population. That is why the Chinese people are making great efforts to protect their farmland and increase agricultural production.

Farmland is being lost for several reasons. First, it is being built on. Second, when wind and rain have removed a lot of the soil, no more crops can be grown on this land. Third, a lot of irrigated land has become too salty to grow plants. Also, it is well known that pests continue to eat crops, causing damage. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) has worked out that up to 30% of food is lost in storage. Food stores are frequently ruined by rain or damp, or eaten by mice.

In a word, hunger is a big problem in the world today. No one is sure how many people are hungry, but it is thought that 500 million people in the world do not have enough to eat, that is about one in ten. Every year about 40 million people starve to death.

Various things can be done to increase the food supply in the world. The area of farmland can be increased by irrigation. Take the Aswan Dam in Egypt for example, where desert land can now be used for growing crops. The same has happened in the west of the USA, particularly for the growing of fruit. Farmers can increase their corn crops three times simply by watering their fields. In Europe, Holland continues to increase its area of farmland by pumping water from low-lying areas.

Scientists continue to develop new types of plants which produce heavier crops. They are also developing new types of plants that can be grown in poor soil or even sand, and that are less likely to be attacked by pests and diseases.