Producing more: A growing commitment

MANILA, Philippines - Imagine you’re a small-acreage farmer in India. You grow just enough vegetables and enough cotton to put food on the table and provide necessities for your family of four, with barely enough left to make a profit. 

Now imagine your family of four increases to six overnight. Two more mouths to feed, more necessities and one-and-a-half times as much production is needed out of your small plot to provide for all six. Dismayed, you scan your rows of crops in search of some way to make more out of the same amount of land and resources you had yesterday, when it was a struggle to feed even four people.

That family represents the world’s population, and by 2050 a agriculture will have to address its growing needs, with fewer resources available.

World population by 2050

By 2050, the UN estimates the world’s population could reach nine billion. To keep up with population growth more food will have to be produced in the next 50 years as the past 10,000 years combined.

The world’s farmers are in the same plight as the farmer in this scenario – how to produce more crops on the same amount of land? Monsanto has committed to working alongside farmers to double corn, cotton, canola and soybean yield (based on average yields in a country), between 2000 and 2030, in areas that have access to Monsanto’s technology.

“Finding ways to feed an additional three billion people – about 50 percent more than are on the planet today – by 2050 is a daunting challenge,” Diane Herndon, Monsanto’s environmental partnerships head, said. “Growers will need to maximize the efficiency and productivity of every unit of land.” 

Increasing yields

There has been progress. In 2000, the average US corn yield was 8.59 metric tons per hectare (MT/Ha); in 2009 that figure increased to 10.35 MT/Ha. That means the US is 14-percent closer to doubling its corn yield by 2030.

In South Africa, yield has increase at a more dramatic rate. In 2000, corn yield measured only 3 MT/Ha. By 2009, South Africa was seeing an average corn yield of 4.31 MT/Ha – almost a 50-percent increase.

Soybean yield is also increasing.  

In 2000, the US had an average soybean yield of 2.56 MT/Ha, and over the course of nine years that figure has jumped to about 2.96 metric tons per hectare – 9.7 percent increase in yield between 2000 and 2009. Brazil experienced a 4.8-percent increase in soybean yield during the same time period, going from 2.83 MT/Ha in 2000 to 2.91 MT/Ha in 2009.

Vegetable yield is also on the rise, with help from new and improved technologies and dedicated employees who share them with farmers. In India, for example, hot peppers are traditionally grown in open fields with furrow irrigation, making seed production vulnerable to a range of pests and diseases. As a result, frequent spraying of pesticides and more frequent irrigation are required. All of this increases the use of resources and costs and results in lower yield.

New production techniques

The India team introduced new production techniques and practices to farmers, including healthy and uniform seedlings for planting to help plant stands and yield potential, and demonstrated how to use mulches to prevent weed growth and moisture loss, thus reducing cultivation cost and increasing yield potential.

Because of these efforts, between 2005 and 2009, the yields among participating hot pepper farmers more than doubled from 260 kilograms per hectare (Kg/Ha) in 2005 to 630Kg/Ha in 2009.

Future looks bright

The future is looking bright for our goal of doubling yields by 2030, but there is still work ahead.

“As a society, we need to stay ahead of climate changes that are affecting weather around the world,” Herndon said. “We need to understand food supply and demand projections to predict and plan around the gaps. We need to give growers additional tools – in the forms of both information and products – so that they can use water, energy and fertilizer most precisely. And we need to reward growers who are ever improving their productivity and efficiency while protecting the ecosystem. Growers are up to the task. The work ahead builds on the shoulders of great achievements they have already realized.”