OECD: Developing Countries to Increase Farm Yield

Rising farm yield in the developing countries is one of the ways to help meet the world's demand for food in the next ten years, said Wayne Jones, head of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's agri-food and trade markets division, during the Future Farm Europe conference held in Victoria Park Plaza, London on 26-28 June 2012. This increase in supply would lead to closing the productivity gap between the developing and developed countries, and would also cause decrease in prices by 5 to 20 percent, Jones added.

Jones explained further that the world would require an increase of 60 percent in food and feed to meet the global demand in 2050. As the population increases exponentially, more people moving from rural areas to the cities, and their diet preferences are turning to meat. Thus, there would be more land available for planting in rural areas, which could lead to an increase of 5 percent in agricultural production by 2050.

He also pointed out that biotechnology is not a silver bullet. However, it could help increase production in the developing countries. People's concerns about biotech, which are due to lack of information, are also decreasing as time passes. These challenges are being addressed by the industry, as well as the other concerned organizations.

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