Breeding and agronomic improvements have,
on average, achieved a linear increase in food
production globally, at an average rate of 32 million
metric tons per year (2) (Fig. 1). However, to meet
the recent Declaration of the World Summit on
Food Security (3) target of 70% more food by
2050, an average annual increase in production of
44 million metric tons per year is required (Fig. 1),
representing a 38% increase over historical
increases in production, to be sustained for 40
years. This scale of sustained increase in global
food production is unprecedented and requires
substantial changes in methods for agronomic
processes and crop improvement. Achieving this
increase in food production in a stable environment
would be challenging, but is undoubtedly much more so given the additional pressures created
by global environmental changes.