Word: cropped
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...more to do with the welfare of the earth's 5 billion people than many heads of state. As a plant breeder at CIMMYT, the internationally funded agricultural research station in El Batan, Mexico, he spends his days in silent battle with threats to the world's wheat crop. Recently Skovmand discovered a rare strain of wheat from eastern Turkey that is resistant to the Russian aphid, an invader that has so far cost American farmers $300 million. By using the Turkish strain to develop hearty new hybrid wheats, CIMMYT breeders may help growers outwit the aphid...
According to economist Peter Hazell, who conducted a study of crop volatility for the International Food Policy Research Institute, the likelihood of major food shortfalls has doubled during the past four decades. India, for instance, relies heavily on one type of fast-growing wheat, called sonalika, that is susceptible to several diseases. One epidemic in this crop could wipe out India's entire grain surplus...
...India with wheat strains resistant to the pests that threaten sonalika, but, says Michael Strauss of the National Academy of Sciences, "this is not a battle you win just once." Disease germs and insects continually evolve, developing resistance to pesticides and seeking out vulnerabilities that enable them to penetrate crop defenses...
...rise of megacities in the developing world also thwarts agricultural policies that would stimulate food production in the countryside. Mindful that governments get overthrown by city dwellers and not farmers, many Third World regimes artificially lower crop prices to placate their urban populations. In Egypt, livestock growers find it cheaper to feed their animals subsidized bread than to produce the grain themselves. This absurdity is unlikely to change, because a past attempt to hike the price of bread produced riots in Cairo...
...India's farmers could thrive even as wheat prices dropped, because production costs fell faster. Now it is harder to lower costs and, Winkelmann says, "India may not be able to count on cheap food as it has in the past as an element of industrialization." He expects crop prices to rise after mid-decade, as demand increases faster than supply...