Global atlas helps close yield gaps
Thursday, 2015/10/15 | 07:07:33
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ICRISAT 01 Oct 2015 No. 1695
Figure: Global Yield Gap Atlas Project team members have been working with the farmer (L) to increase maize yields with higher quality of protein. He grows maize, sorghum and tef on his 6 ha farm in the Ethiopian highlands. Photo: L Claessens, ICRISAT
To help agricultural researchers and policy makers prioritize their efforts to sustainably intensify agricultural systems, the Global Yield Gap and Water Productivity Atlas (http://www.yieldgap.org/) that provides location specific information is a valuable tool. It helps breeders and agronomists evaluate the effectiveness of existing crop management practices and figure out agricultural inputs and management interventions that are needed to close the yield gaps for different crops in various countries.
To meet the growing food and feed demand, sustainable intensification of agricultural production on existing farm lands is critical. Expanding the area under cultivation may not be the best option to achieve this, as it increases greenhouse gas emissions and has a negative impact on biodiversity. “The Global Yield Gap Atlas project is providing a robust spatial framework based on climate, soil and cropping system to target interventions and plan initiatives that have the biggest potential impacts,” said Dr Lieven Claessens, Senior Scientist – Natural Resources, ICRISAT.
The project has been working with agronomists in various countries in Africa, Latin America, North America, South Asia, East Asia, Middle East, Oceania and Europe to collect site specific data on yield potential and yield gaps of various crops (maize, wheat, rice, sorghum and millet). This project was initiated in 2012 to improve yield potential/yield gap estimates for all major crops in the world. ICRISAT works with poor farmers in low-input agricultural systems that are often characterized by large yield gaps.
At a recent project review meeting, participants explored opportunities for using the yield gap data to support agricultural initiatives. Participants gave presentations on their findings on current yield gaps for the various crops, production capacity and water productivity in key target countries. Results from the Global Yield Gap Atlas provide important information on the capacities for various countries to be self-sufficient in staple food crop production now and in the future.
“For now the spatial framework is solely based on biophysical conditions, and we know that adoption of improved technologies does not depend only on biophysical factors. So the next step is to add socioeconomic information like access to input and output markets, farm size, labor availability and off-farm income to better characterize farming systems,” Dr Claessens added.
The project team met on 22-24 September, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the review meeting. For workshop presentations: http://www.yieldgap.org/web/guest/workshop-ethiopia-2015
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