ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT: By 2050 the world’s farmers must feed 9,000 million people-3,000 million more than the current population-without much expansion in the amount of land and water devoted to agriculture. The most efficient way to feed 3,000 million more people is by increasing food production efficiency on the world’s larger farms through green revolution and modern agricultural strategies, but this will require doubling crop per drop efficiency of irrigation. Since the vast majority of population growthwill take place in developing countries, the biggest challengewill be to find practical ways to end poverty and gain food security on the one-acre1 farms where most dollar-aday poverty is now centered. But lack of access to irrigation, significant investments in inputs and perceived risks will continue to constrain the smallholders from investing in green revolution strategies. This dictates major new investments in low cost and low risk food production enhancing strategies like urea sustained release pellets and System for Rice Intensification (SRI) for small farmers, coupled with the creation andmass marketing of a whole new range of affordable irrigation tools like treadle pumps and low cost drip systems, suitable for one acre farms and quarter acre plots.