The panel identified technologies waiting on the shelf that are able to increase world food output, even by advanced farmers. For the less developed, the technologies, of course, have more potential. A realist wants more than Delphic assurance. A larger divisor, not a smaller gain, lowered the Master's percentage. A survey of irrigated Pakistani farms, however, shows a yield gap between masters and the average farmer.
Technology likely remains on the shelf for farmers everywhere.
Because use lags discovery by decades, the inventory on the shelf cannot be filled on need but must be replenished continually. The expenditures by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research provide an index of effort to refresh the inventory, worldwide. So while the shelf holds technology now, what it will hold in a few decades does worry justifiably. A concentration on research should not cause the reader to think of technology as a single object. In fact, effectiveness requires a comprehensive system.