Can a single sector feed the world, reduce poverty and promote economic growth? It is a tough row to hoe, but in the wake of extreme weather, crop failures and high food prices, anxious organizations and nations are turning to agriculture for answers. The task: to roughly double food production by 2050—when the global population is expected to reach 9 billion people—in a reliable, environmentally sustainable way at a reasonable cost.
That will require improving crop yields, managing limited oil and water supplies, developing drought-resistant crops, encouraging aquaculture, increasing production in poor countries, dealing with deforestation, and avoiding conflicts between nations over land and resources.
If agriculture can surmount these and other significant challenges, it will truly plant seeds of change.





