Who first raised the fear of a world food shortage ........

Explanation:

• Thomas Robert Malthus was an English cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography who for the first time proposed the condition of food shortage on the grounds of scarce resources and unlimited wants after studying the world demographics. In 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus famously predicted that short-term gains in living standards would inevitably be undermined as human population growth outstripped food production, and thereby drive living standards back toward subsistence. Hence option 2nd is correct.