Global agricultural productivity growth is in steep decline, and current efforts to expand sustainable agriculture production to feed a growing global population are inadequate to deal with the challenges that the world faces. That’s according to the 2022 Global Agricultural Productivity Report, produced by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech.
To sustainably produce food and agricultural products for more than nine billion people in 2050, agricultural productivity must increase an average of 1.73 percent annually. From 2011-2020, global agricultural productivity grew at an average of just 1.12 percent per year, a significant drop from the average growth rate of 1.99 percent from 2001-2010. Current efforts to accelerate productivity growth are inadequate, the climate will have a significant impact on production, and regional inequities around the world exacerbate the problem, the report says.
Researcher Tom Thompson says, “We urgently need to reverse this trend so that we can improve food and nutrition security, sustainability, and resilience.”
Comments