As the world approaches the new millennium, the Malthusian prediction of population growth outstripping food supplies may come true, warns Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, leading agro-biologist, calling for urgent measures to avert it. Increasing population, leading to diminishing availability of arable land and water, urbanisation, desertification, deforestation and other forms of environmental degradation, coupled with no technological breakthrough in agriculture, are all pointers to this dire state, says Prof. Swaminathan in an article in a new book "Valuing the global environment".