As we begin a new decade, with uncertainty and in some turmoil due to the financial crisis of the last two years, it is important that we as a nation look to building a stronger economy and entrepreneurial ecosystem, based on the many opportunities that beckon. Change brings about opportunity, and there are significant changes happening in the world today, creating enormous opportunities for our entrepreneurs.

The world is in the midst of a population explosion. The current world population is about 6.8 billion, and in 40 years, this will grow to 9.4 billion. Of that number, roughly 62% will be in South and East Asia and Africa. That’s about 40% more people to feed, clothe, house, educate, medicate and care for, and the majority will be in developing countries.

The world is running out of food and arable land to grow enough food to feed this growing population. According to the World Health Organisation, hunger is the biggest single threat to the world’s public health. That’s today. If we cannot feed the world’s population today, how will we feed the growing population over the next 40 years? Crop production alone has to grow by 70% to ensure we have enough food in 2050.

Farmland is now a scarce resource. The need to feed people leads to deforestation and this will ultimately mean less water, more carbon dioxide, loss of biodiversity, and global warming. Increasing the land for farming will also increase pollutants in the water, and pesticides destroy the very animal biodiversity necessary for farming. This is already happening. Look at the alarming reduction of the bee population in North America, leading to citrus trees not being pollinated, thus reducing the orange crop.

There are great opportunities in agricultural technology, with research needed to increase crop production by increasing yields per hectare without increasing the amount of land needed. Our research institutes are in a very good position to do this — but research must be specific, targeted and must have productive use. Therefore, increasing yields, creating seeds and crops that are more resistant to pests, use less water and can  produce more without additional fertilisers are the areas of research we should focus on.

Besides land, there is also a shortage of water, and this precious resource will only be reduced over the coming years. Already Australia, Africa and India face major water shortages, and increasing desertification leads to less arable land and no water for crops. Australia was once a major exporter of wheat and other food crops, but today, it has become an importer. Droughts have seriously affected crop production in India and Africa as well.

Rice feeds more people than any other crop, and with Asian populations growing fast this is a critical food crop. Japanese farmers already grow “dry rice” in padi fields that don’t require vast amounts of water. But farmers in the rest of Asia don’t grow that variety because dry rice yield is lower than wet rice. If dry rice yields can be increased, the potential to grow rice in less arable or drought affected land in Asia is huge.

Furthermore, water shortages, especially clean unpolluted water, also lead to health problems. And in the future, it is not unforeseeable that more wars will be fought over water than over any other resource. Hence we need to find better ways not just to find and produce more water, but to find the means to reduce water loss and usage.

We are also facing an energy shortage, and we come to the theory behind “peak oil” states that have already reached maximum production, and that the production of oil is now in decline. This theory may be debatable, but the growth in the number of vehicles, especially in China and India, and the higher use of oil globally, will lead to higher prices and shortages in the future.

One unpleasant result is that dictators could hold the world to ransom, and higher oil prices would lead to more volatile economic patterns and increases in inflation. The rise of the oil price to US$147 a barrel last year precipitated the recent recession, and it is likely we will have more such volatility in the future.

So, there is a great need to find alternative fuel sources. This is the great race being played out today.
US President Barack Obama’s administration has made finding alternative fuel sources a major part of its policy, creating a global “green” initiative as researchers and entrepreneurs seek the holy grail of an economically viable alternative to oil.

Malaysian researchers need to do more research in this field. For example, deriving oil from algae is one possibility. Algae grow best in the tropics, giving us an edge, yet the only form of alternative energy we have is biodiesel from palm oil.  This is one of the most inefficient sources of biofuel as it competes with food, the main use of palm oil.

Environmental issues will come to the fore this decade as people become more aware of issues like global warming, the destruction of forests and waterways, and the damage caused to the environment by non-recyclable waste like plastic bottles and polystyrene cartons. Already, we have “no plastic” Saturdays, but this will not be enough. We need to find alternatives to plastics and non-recyclables fast. Perhaps we need biodegradable cassava-(tapioca) based plastic bags and cartons to replace plastics. Even something as simple as that will have a significant impact on the environment.

Healthcare is another serious issue, and growing populations have led to less medical care than ever before. Even in the US, healthcare costs have surged so much that millions of Americans have no health insurance coverage.

Research into better medical treatments, new discoveries in drugs, new equipment and better preventive medicine as well as monitoring is required. Malaria, typhoid, cholera, dengue and tuberculosis still kill millions around the world, and vaccines are still elusive. These are just some of the diseases for which there is no cure. If you include livestock diseases, then there are innumerable diseases for which drugs are still not available — and research and entrepreneurial opportunities abound.

The Asian population is also a young population. On average, half the Asian population is below 25 years old, while in places like Vietnam it is 60%. Poverty is endemic in many countries, and parents know that education is one route out of poverty so everyone wants a decent education. In Malaysia alone, thousands of parents send their children for private education at high cost, and China sends 22 million students abroad every year for a foreign education. Education is another great opportunity, and the use of the Internet and mobile technology as well as new forms of e-learning is still largely unexplored in this part of the world.

Technology changes are also changing the way we do business. And from the near death of paper-based newspapers to the possible death knell for traditional broadcast channels, there are plenty of opportunities. Already, IPTV (Internet protocol TV) is taking off and YouTube will soon rent out movies via on-demand Internet TV. Newspapers are struggling because of new media like blogs and the aggregation of news by sites like Google News. Advertising is growing on the Internet but advertising in newspapers and magazines is dwindling. Even video advertising on the net is growing.

So many changes are happening in new media that it’s impossible to keep up. Maybe 10 years from now we will not watch CNN anymore. We will get all our global news in real time online. This has been proven true with Twitter news being more real time than CNN during the recent Iran crisis. And news about a recent fire in Kuala Lumpur was first broken by Twitter way before the traditional media.

In future, we may even be reading everything on devices like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader.  School children will only need a Kindle for all their schoolwork — no need to carry 10kg of books to school. Providing content and applications for electronic readers, and possibly for the Apple Tablet — expected to be unveiled any time now — will be another huge opportunity, just like apps for the iPhone of which three billion had been downloaded by January 2010. Social networks will proliferate especially in specific niches, and these will lead to more apps and games required to feed the insatiable appetite of the youth who have adopted social networks as part of their culture.

As we can see, the next decade will bring with it tremendous business and research opportunities. We need to review what we do and grab hold of them. Our universities and research institutes need to do more economically viable and innovative research to meet the many needs of the future. If we can do this, it will create more business opportunities for entrepreneurs and take us up the value chain, fulfilling the needs of a new economic model. This is not hard to do, yet if all stakeholders do not do this, we will lose a great opportunity to build a new Malaysian economy and contribute to changing the world for the better.

(The author is passionate about entrepreneurship and Blogs at www.docsiva.org)

The article appeared in [email protected], the technology section of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 791 Feb 1 - 7 2010