ABSTRACT
Edible plant products are the major component of our food. During the next 25 years, the food demand will triple, the world population will increase by at least 40%, and cultivated land area will increase by perhaps 10%. The connections among land area, agricultural practices, small to very large farms, farmers, cropping, plant breeding for production, processing, and adding of value will become very obvious. Sadly enough, all of these issues will place great demands on each step of world agricultural productivity. Part of the knowledge needed to enhance productivity will arise from newer applications of the sciences of biotechnology (and not solely genetic engineering) and informatics to agriculture and food production. The other factor important to agricultural production climate and environmental change, despite much improved weather forecasting and reporting, will remain immutable and nonchangeable by humans. Political and economic policy considerations and consumer confidence and acceptance will further be constrained by the global epidemic of malnutrition, whether people are underfed or overfed. Progress against a shrinking timeline should make this period in the life of humanity difficult. These challenges are indeed the necessary impetus for human ingenuity and inventiveness once again to rise to the occasion. In this chapter, the above issues are examined from developmental, scientific and societal perspectives.
