A detailed analysis of the global food situation has found that a billion people are hungry, another billion malnourished, and that unless action is taken, there will not be enough food for the growing population.

Government Chief Scientific adviser Professor Sir John Beddington, who led the report, said that farmers, politicians, economists and scientists needed to think how to make food production more efficient and dealing with the problems of water and energy.

"GM may be the answer for certain problems," he said, such as drought areas, but in general "there is no one simple solution".

Issues of waste, and under-investment in agriculture also needed to be dealt with, he said.

"We are not making any more land, we have got to look for a significant and sustainable intensification of agriculture."

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