1. Reinventing Agriculture in the 21st Century, Overview
Channel: International Rice Research Institute
Date: 2010-10-13

Throughout the world, agriculture is faced with an immense challenge: how to increase yields to feed a growing population from depleted soils and do so in the face of climate change. The world must double food production by mid-century while adapting agriculture to climate change and reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases.

The situation is particularly critical in Africa, where food production must be dramatically increased to avoid widespread starvation. But food production per capita has been declining, and cereal yields have remained stagnant, since the 1960s.

Can a transformation to sustainable and affordable agriculture be achieved so that food production is doubled in a way that benefits smallholder farmers and does not further threaten biodiversity?

This video presents part 1 (of  7) of presentations and discussion afterwords that took place during a seminar on this topic during the World Food Prize events in Des Moines, Iowa on 12 October 2010. Dr. Dennis Garrity, director general of the World Agroforestry Centre, chaired the program and sets the stage in Part 1.