Agricultural revolution needed for 21st century

ACPFG student Jingwen Tiong checks the presence of barley zinc transporters in rice seeds. Photo by Cobi Smith.
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Paper published in Science (1.39M)

Friday, 12 February 2010

Substantial changes in agriculture will be needed to feed an estimated nine billion people living on the planet by 2050, according to a paper published today in by two University of 新浪彩票 researchers.

and claim that new breeding technologies are critical to increase crop yields and produce high-quality food for the world's rapidly growing population.

The two scientists from the , based at the University's , say new technologies to accelerate breeding and increase genetic diversity will help meet global targets of 70% more food by the middle of this century.

However, rapid global environmental change, increasing CO2 emissions and the use of food to produce biofuels will make these targets a challenge, the scientists warn.

"We need to produce more food, and o