Biotech Updates

IFPRI Reports Role of Agri Technologies in Attaining Food Security

February 19, 2014

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) investigated on the role of agricultural technologies in addressing hunger using comprehensive process-based modeling. The results was published in a report titled Food Security in a World of Natural Resource Scarcity: The Role of Agricultural Technologies.

The study involved evaluation of yield and food impact through 2050 of a broad range of agricultural technologies under varying assumptions of climate change for the three key staple crops: maize, rice, and wheat.

Results of the study showed that adoption of agricultural technologies including drought tolerance, heat tolerance, and nitrogen use efficiency can substantially increase food production, reduce food prices, and improve food security under climate change. The greatest yield benefits were found to be in Africa South of Sahara, South Asia, and areas of Latin America. When multiple technologies are combined, food prices can be reduced by almost 50 percent leading to 12 percent decrease in the number of malnourished children and 40 percent reduction in number of people at risk of hunger.

Read more at http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/oc76.pdf.