Poverty is a principal cause of hunger - it prevents people from having access to food and the tools they need to grow it. Natural disasters, conflict, lack of infrastructure, and poor farming practices also contribute to the growing problem of hunger as the world population increases. But simple, smart investments in agriculture have saved lives in the past, and today we have the science, innovation, and technology to create sustainable solutions that will feed the future.
The global population will grow over 30% by 2050. Food production will need to grow by 70% to meet with demand.
Tilapia: The Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia strain developed by the WorldFish Center helped over 300,000 people in the Philippines alone.
Cassava: A program to develop high-yield, vitamin enriched varieties of cassava helped to cut undernourishment in Ghana by half over a 20-year period.
Wheat: Adoption of short-stature wheat beginning in the 1950s, along with other transformative Green Revolution technologies, are credited with saving an estimated one billion lives.
Rice: Between 1965 and 2007, semi-dwarf rice helped expand global rice production from 256 to over 630 million metric tons.
Corn: In Rwanda, a crop intensification initiative that made fertilizer and higher quality seeds available to farmers produced four times the annual corn output that was harvested in years past.
Last updated: May 26, 2015
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