Slowing Agriculture Productivity Trend

According to the new Global Agricultural Productivity report released by the Global Harvest Initiative global agricultural productivity is not accelerating fast enough to meet the expected demand for sustainable production by the year 2050. For the first time in several years the report shows that ag productivity in high income countries is actually declining and not keeping up with trend lines. This means that if this trend continues on its present course over the next thirty years world food demands will quickly outpace sustainable world food supplies. So how do we tighten the gap between supply and demand? Dr. Margaret Zeigler, Executive Director of GHI, told the group gathered at the recent World Food Prize Symposium that “To realize the promise of new global revolutions in agriculture we need greater investment in agricultural research and development, better trade agreements for facilitation of global and regional trade in agriculture, and a commitment to apply information and science based technologies.” Zeigler also pointed out the importance of promoting and empowering more women in ag production, saying that “their contributions will be key to lifting up the nutritional status of the next generation.”