2020 is really a year full of disasters. The ravages of COVID-19 and various natural disasters have caused turmoil in many parts of the world. What is the most precious in troubled times, there is no doubt that it must be food, and everyone can't help but eat it. As early as when the COVID-19 epidemic was just under control in China, China put forward the slogan of saving food, which was not groundless. Now the world food supply situation seems to be really grim.

Long before the outbreak of COVID-19, there were locust plagues in the Middle East and North Africa, and some people even said that locust plagues might fly into China. Fortunately, it didn't have a big impact at home in the end. But there is no doubt that the locust plague has affected the local grain output, and the area where the locust plague is raging is the area with rapid population growth. The local demand for food is increasing day by day, but the output has not been able to go up.

This round of food price increase is actually more due to the rapid population growth in Africa and the Middle East. Take Nigeria as an example. In the current national population ranking, Nigeria ranks seventh in the world with a population of 654.38+95.8 million, with a population growth of 2.6 1%, leading the world with a population ranking of 654.38+05. However, Nigeria has a small land area of 923,760 square kilometers, ranking 3 1 in the world. Compared with Russia 1709820 square kilometers, Nigeria is only 5% of Russia. However, on less than 1 10,000 square kilometers, it supports nearly 200 million people, and the population density reaches 2 12 people per square kilometer, which is very crowded.

In China, there has always been a word called demographic dividend, but it is only aimed at China. The average education rate of China population is high, which has promoted all kinds of senior talents for the industry. But for a country like Nigeria, the so-called demographic dividend does not exist. The education rate is not high, and no industry can undertake the employment of the population. The most serious thing is that Nigeria cannot be self-sufficient and needs to import food!

In recent years, due to the progress of medical conditions in Africa, the infant survival rate has been greatly improved, leading to population explosion. However, most African countries do not have the basic ability of industrial and food self-sufficiency, and can only export various resources in exchange for food. Now food prices are soaring, and the food supply is getting less and less, but the population is still growing. It is foreseeable that this situation may eventually affect the social stability of African countries, and the Malthusian trap is just around the corner, and they don't know it yet!