Friday, 14 February 2014

Agriculture Innovations Could Boost Global Rice Production by 43%, Reduce Food Prices by 50% by 2050, IFPRI Says

A study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has found that new agricultural practices and technologies could increase global rice production by up to 43% and reduce food prices by nearly half by the year 2050. 

The IFPRI study is published in the book, "Food Security in a World of Natural Resource Scarcity: The Role of Agricultural Technologies," and examines 11 agricultural practices and technologies and how they could help farmers globally to improve the growth sustainability of the world's main staple crops - rice, maize and wheat - in developing countries. 

The 11 agricultural innovations identified by IFPRI include: crop protection, drip irrigation, drought tolerance, heat tolerance, integrated soil fertility management, no-till farming, nutrient use efficiency, organic agriculture, precision agriculture, sprinkler irrigation, and water harvesting. For instance, the study says that nitrogen-use efficiency could increase rice crop yields by 22% and irrigation could increase crop yields by another 21% by 2050. 

IFPRI Director and lead author of the book says farmers in the developing world could adopt a combination of technologies according to their crop schedules and regional preferences to improve global rice production by 43%, maize production by 49% and wheat production by 45%. He however, adds that improvement in agricultural education would ensure better use of available technologies according to different regions and availability of resources.  READ MORE

Source: www.oryza.com. #IFAMAFRICA

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