Boosting yields, not area of farmland, key to increased food production – UN

Published: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:30:54 GMT

25 September 2009 – Producing enough food to feed the surging global population will require increasing crop yields, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today, calling for a sharp upswing in public investment in research of new technologies, farming techniques and crop varieties.

In a new paper issued today, the agency predicted that global agricultural production must grow by 70 per cent by 2050 to feed an additional 2.3 billion people.

Most gains in production, it forecasted, will come about through accelerating yield growth instead of increasing the amount of land brought under agricultural production.

This necessitates “pushing the agricultural technology frontier outwards” on several fronts, according to the new study.

Climate change is one of the factors driving the need to increase crop yields. If temperature rise exceeds 2 degrees Centrigrade, global food production potential is expected to plummet, with yields to drop by 20-40 per cent in Africa, Asia and Latin America if effective adaptation measures are not introduced.

The new paper will provide discussion topics for the High-Level Expert Forum on How to Feed the World in 2050, to be held next month at FAO’s Headquarters in Rome.


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