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Wageningen spearheads doubling food production drive

Universities join research efforts


Tags: Excerpts from the Windmill

WAGENINGEN, the Netherlands – Five universities and research institutes have joined Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) to research how the world’s food production can be doubled in a sustainable manner.

The participants of the Wageningen UR initiative are knowledge institutions in the field of agri-food from the leading food-producing countries in the world: Embrapa in Brazil, University of California (UC) Davis, U.S.A., Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in China, INRA in France and Massey University in New Zealand.

The presidents of the six organizations were at hand in Wageningen recently for the launch of their Global Alliance on Food Security Research project.

It is projected that in the coming decades, the world's population will grow from the current 7 billion to 8 billion people to 9 billion by 2050. It is thought that at the same time, wealth will grow and that the demand for food will double in the coming decades. The project’s partners also anticipate increasing demand for protein-rich food.

The Wageningen-led research will include technology such as sensors and GPS systems to find more effective ways to fertilize and harvest crops.