Agricultural Education, Science and Modern Technology's Role in Solving the Problems of Global Food Resources in the 21st Century
The growth of agriculture output over the past 200 years has been phenomenal. When Malthus wrote in 1798, he perceived limits on agricultural production as serious and imminent. Since then world population has increased by six-fold and global agric...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/969381468332486273/Agricultural-education-science-and-modern-technologys-role-in-solving-the-problems-of-global-food-resources-in-the-21st-century http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27120 |
| Summary: | The growth of agriculture output over
the past 200 years has been phenomenal. When Malthus wrote
in 1798, he perceived limits on agricultural production as
serious and imminent. Since then world population has
increased by six-fold and global agricultural production has
more than kept pace. Falling real grain prices for most of
the 20th Century are cited as evidence. The sources of the
increase in food production, however, have been quite
different and have come in distinct waves. For most of the
19th century, increased output came from expanded land area
in production. Science-based agriculture is really a
post-Mendel phenomenon. In the 20th century, new technology
came in different forms. First, mechanical technology,
particularly the tractor, made possible cultivating more
acres and freed enormous areas used for producing fuel for
draft animals, for food production. Improvements in breeding
and agronomy in the middle part of the century opened the
possibility of substantially increasing yields per unit of
land through the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
As we look to the 21st century, this conference is asking a
critical question about the role of knowledge, science and
technology in meeting future global food needs. |
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