Abstract
Over the years, cereals have been the major food consumed by humans and have also been used in animal diet and therefore highly commendable for playing a major role in the preservation of human race. Studies have shown that half of the total percentage of calories consumed in the world is from cereals while it is also the most traded agricultural crop at the international market. This motivates the need to assess its utilisation in the past, present and future. This review shows that much driven by the use of cereals are factors like consumption and dietary pattern of a person or country, technological advancement in adding value to it, income status, market forces of demand and supply, level of affluence and policy. The trend in global cereals utilisation since its domestication has indicated an upward one with bulk of it being consumed as food in developing countries while majority of it goes into feeding livestock in developed countries. Evidence from this study also shows that the per capita utilisation of cereals directly for food is exceedingly great in developing countries than developed countries which is an indicator of malnutrition when not balance with other nutrients as it was observed in Bangladesh where calorie intake of an adult is about 90% from cereals. While there is a steady increase in global cereals utilisation due to its discovered industrial use as fuel, increased population and other factors, it will be expedient to focus on its sustainability and environmental issues that are likely to come up as a limitation to meet future demands.
Highlights
The importance of food in our society cannot be overemphasized
According to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, 2015), the global demand rate for cereals declined by 0.9% in 1990 from 1.9% in 1989 and 2.5% in 1970s to 1% in 1990 due to decreasing rate of increase in world population followed by a rapid increase in the consumption of cereals in most Asian part of the world which has limited export, yet, the mean per capita consumption of cereals in developing countries had still risen between those periods
Sustainability Increasing Population Growth Due to rapid growth in population, there is an increase in the demand for food and this has necessitated the need for resource use efficiency and reduction in environmental problems caused as a result of nutrient losses, land degradation, climate change and other related agro-ecological problems
Summary
The importance of food in our society cannot be overemphasized. Beyond its need for hunger satisfaction, food is absolutely required for physiological functioning of the body. According to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, 2015), the global demand rate for cereals declined by 0.9% in 1990 from 1.9% in 1989 and 2.5% in 1970s to 1% in 1990 due to decreasing rate of increase in world population followed by a rapid increase in the consumption of cereals in most Asian part of the world which has limited export, yet, the mean per capita consumption of cereals in developing countries had still risen between those periods An example of this was seen in Central Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Far East and Asia where the calorie intake was far from that of the Northern part of the world, with the ratio of energy being derived from cereals remaining as high as possible with ridiculous variation in required amount of other food nutrient such as protein. The forecast for world cereal utilisation in 2020/21 has increased to 2,735 million tons, just over 43 million tons (1.6%) above the 2019/20 level (FAO, 2020)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call