Recent Study Reveals Stagnating Crop Yields, Calls for Regional Action

In a study published in the Dec. 18 issue of Nature Communications, the crop yields of four major crops were globally examined using huge crop census data and were found to show stagnating or declining patterns in 24 to 39 percent of the harvested areas. Scientists from the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment and McGill University in Montreal, Canada developed geographically detailed maps of annual crop harvested areas and yields of corn, rice, wheat and soybeans from 1961 to 2008. One of the important findings shows that China and India, the two most populous countries in the world, have vast areas characterized by an alarming yield stagnation or decline in recent years. According to the authors, the overall yield pattern "underscores the challenge of meeting increasing global agricultural demands". The paper suggests two main actions to address the stagnating or declining yield trend. First, it recommends to maintain the yield gains in high-performing areas or the 61 to 76 percent of croplands where yield is still climbing, and second, it encourages new investments in under performing regions around the world.

Read the news release at http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releases/2012/UR_CONTENT_424268.html and the journal article at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n12/full/ncomms2296.html.