Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
efficiency. Precision agriculture, presently used in developed countries, combines
remote sensing with modeling to better achieve efficient crop production. In devel-
oping countries, especially in dryland areas, microdosing techniques in water and
nutrient management, improved innovation systems, and networks to accelerate the
innovation process will be needed. To be successful, new innovations must be made
available to all farmers through effective policy decisions, available credit to pur-
chase the technology, and accessible markets for the extra production. Computers,
the Internet, and cell phones to improve communications will be useful in future
food production systems for all economic levels of farmer.
IntRoductIon
During the last 40 years, world food production rose dramatically as a result of green
revolution (GR) technologies, a combination of genetic, agronomic, and crop protec-
tion improvements. Production gains in maize were also seen as a result of hybrid
seed development. Production of these three main cereal crops increased threefold
between 1961 and 2006, from 642 to nearly 2000 million metric tons (Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, n.d.). Population in the same period
doubled from around 3 to 6 billion people. Increased food production was due to
increased acreage (an extra 100 million ha counted as new land or where double and
triple cropping became feasible) and higher yields (+250%). There have also been
gains in yields and production levels for milk, fish, and other animal products, as
discussed in other chapters in this topic. Growth in cereal yields has been a major
factor in maintaining global food security, although inequitable distribution and lack
of income to buy food means that some of the very poor have remained hungry.
Continued growth in food production well into the future is essential to feed the
world, especially in developing nations where population is still growing and in
developed nations where land and water are being diverted for production of biofuels
(discussed in Chapter 17). Food security will continue to be an issue. Food imports
are unlikely to be the answer: Import costs will rise as fossil fuel prices rise and costs
of shipping increase. Policies must continue to stimulate local and regional food
production. Agriculture needs to increase production using new sources of technical
change and more efficient use of natural resources. The rest of this chapter discusses
some of the new post-GR production advances in crop science that will be needed to
meet future food needs for cereals and other crops.
moleculAR bIology
Biotechnology
is defined as any technique that uses living organisms to make or
modify products, to improve plants or animals, or to develop microorganisms for
specific purposes. Traditional biotechnology or plant breeding has been used for
thousands of years by humans for selective breeding of better crop varieties. Farmers
allowed natural crosses between related species to occur and then selected the seed
of superior offspring. Today, in conventional breeding, plant breeders select the par-
ents to cross from closely related species and varieties and after crossing, select the
subsequent segregating plants over a number of generations to identify new lines with
