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World Population and Agriculture
The rapid growth of the world population is an extremely recent phenomenon on the time-scale of the history of the Universe / our Planet and the mankind
The age of Universe is about 14 billion years. The age of our planet Earth is about 4.5 billion years. The Homo sapiens, or the upright-walking species are thought to have first evolved about 300,000 years ago. The development of agriculture dates back to 10,000 years, while urban civilization dates back to 5,000 years
It is estimated that 2000 years ago the population of the world was about 300 million. For a very long time the world population did not grow significantly, with periods of growth followed by periods of decline. It took more than 1600 years for the world population to double to 600 million
Thus, it took all the time from the evolution of mankind to the beginning of 19th century, or several hundreds of thousands of years, for the global population to reach the first 1 billion mark, in 1804
In 1900, world population was ~1.7 billion. But thereafter something really unusual happend during the 20th century, which saw addition of 4,3 billion people in 100 years. The world population graph therefore looks like this as captured in Figure below
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During these 100 years and in the current century till date, the mankind has surpassed successive billion population marks in increasingly shorter periods of time
We will summarise the world population trend by saying that it took say more than 200,000 years to reach first billion mark but the mankind has added another 7 billion in subsequent ~200 years!
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Explore Global Population indicators:
Population Trend
Mid Year (July 1) Population (1950-2023)Rural Population
Rural Population pct Total
Urban Population
Urban Population % of Total
Urban Population Annual Growth
Labour Force Total
Net Migration
Population Forecasts
India Population Forecasts UNWPP 2024 (All variants)UN Medium Variant Forecasts
UN High Variant Forecasts
UN Low Variant Forecasts
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Agriculture
The Neolithic Revolution, also known as the First Agricultural Revolution, which started around 10,000 B.C., was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period in Afro-Eurasia from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making an increasingly large population possible
Since then, it has evolved from early domestication and practices like crop rotation to the modern era, which is characterized by intensified productivity, mechanization, and the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides
As Chemical Engineers, we can`t refrain ourselves from citing the Haber-Bosch process, which allows for the synthesis of Ammonia, being a major breakthrough that enabled crop yields to overcome previous limitations
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Explore Global Agricluture indicators:
Agriculture Land sq kmAgriculture Value Added pct of GDP
Cereal Production (million tons)
Cereal Yield kg per Hectare
Agri RM Exports pct
Agri RM Imports pct
Food Exports pct Merchandise Ex
Food Imports pct Merchandise Im
Fertiliser Consumption kg per hectare
Fertilisers Prices Annual
Fertilisers Prices Monthly