Rural Issue

Report says ag productivity not accelerating fast enough

A report on global agricultural productivity (GAP) finds that it is not accelerating fast enough to meet future global demand.

It’s the first time since the initial GAP report was released in 2009 that the growth of “sustainable” ag productivity has fallen behind the pace needed to meet the needs of nine billion people by 2050.

In her presentation at the World Food Prize event in Des Moines, Margaret Zeigler, executive director of Global Harvest Initiative, said that while productivity growth in low-income countries has been increasing, it needs to happen even faster.  As for high-income countries, Zeigler says the rate of ag productivity growth has actually declined from the decade of the 90’s.

AUDIO: Margaret Zeigler