Food Production and Improvement Strategies

Preventing Hunger and Improving Food Production

  • To prevent more hunger, improvements are needed in:

    • Food production

    • New sources of food

    • Better aid programs

    • Different attitudes to food consumption and waste

Improving Food Production: Yield

  • Yield Definition: To produce or provide a natural, agricultural, or industrial product.

    • Example: "The land yields grapes and tobacco."

Factors Affecting Farming Yields

  • Natural Disasters

    • Floods

    • Storms

    • Drought

  • Government Regulations and Policies

  • Amount of Money Spent on Agricultural Research

  • Impact of Insects and Diseases

  • Access to Finance

    • Micro-loans

  • Availability of Surface Water and Groundwater

  • Ease of Access to Markets

  • Length of Growing Season

  • Climate

    • Rainfall amounts, seasonality, and temperature

  • Soil Fertility and Type

  • Availability of Insects for Pollination

Closing the Yield Gap

  • Definition: The gap between a certain crop’s average yield and its maximum potential yield.

  • Importance: An important strategy in increasing future crop production is closing the yield gap.

  • Strategy: Farmers who are currently less productive will need to increase their yields so that their outputs are closer to those of the more productive farmers.

Strategies to Improve Food Production

  • Improve Irrigation Infrastructure: Pipes and channels make better use of water resources.

    • Example: Murray-Darling Basin

  • Increase Productivity Using Genetically Modified Crops (GM)

    • GM plants are resistant to disease, grow faster, and produce higher yields.

  • Make the Most of Existing Food Resources by Reducing Waste

    • 30% to 40% of food in the developed and developing worlds is lost to waste.

  • Sustainable Intensification of Cropping

    • Produce more food from the same area of land by applying water, nutrients, and pesticides only where and when required, avoiding waste.

  • Examine New Regions for Growing Food

    • Examples: Ord River irrigation area in the Kimberley and greenhouse agriculture in Port Augusta.

  • Expand Aquaculture

    • Increase the amount of fish and seafood produced by fish farms to reduce pressure on fish in the wild.

  • Improve Infrastructure

    • Roads in developing countries allow farmers to move their produce to markets for sale.

    • Link farmers to markets via mobile phones.

  • Reduce the Yield Gap

    • Raise the crop yield of the world's most ineffective farms to 95% of the best yields in similar climates.

    • This could produce 50% to 60% more food worldwide.

  • New Sources of Food

    • In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1400 species of worms, locusts, grasshoppers, spiders, ants, and beetles are an important source of protein.

  • Change Diets

    • 62% of crops are used to feed people; 35% feed meat and dairy animals; 3% is for biofuels and other uses.

    • Switching to vegetarian diets would allow agricultural land to produce 50% more human food.

  • Crop Intensification

    • Obtains the most output from an area. A second or third crop could be harvested from an area in one year.

    • Examples: Feedlot beef farming and poultry battery farming.

Genetically Modified Foods

  • Describes seeds, crops, or foods whose DNA has been altered by genetic engineering techniques.

Opposition to GM Crops

  • Concerns Include:

    • Safety

    • Loss of seed varieties

    • Potential risks to the environment and people’s health

    • The fact that large companies hold the copyright to the seeds of GM plants that are food sources