To make breakfast for 10 billion by 2050, farm yields will have to grow even faster than they’ve grown since the Green Revolution began. That will be way harder now that most of the world already has fertilizer, irrigation, and good seeds.
A scary stat illustrating the point: Irrigated farmland has doubled since 1960, but now that the most accessible rivers and aquifers have been tapped, it’s only expected to expand another 7% by 2050. Something else will have to accelerate yield growth. @charlescmann.bluesky.social
When the Green Revolution began, you could double and triple yields by adding fertilizer and irrigation. But it’s a lot harder to boost yields that much when your farm is already fertilized and irrigated.
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