We are facing the challenge to feed 9 billion people by 2050 while already reaching the ecological limits of our planet today. A holistic approach is urgently required to safeguard
global food security – with innovative solutions that are sustainable and minimize the environmental footprint of farming.
“What we need is a productivity increase in farming that is more sustainable and environmentally compatible. We need to take the Green Revolution of the 1960’s to the next level – we need a New Agricultural Revolution.”
Liam Condon, Chief Executive Officer of Bayer CropScience
Emphasizing the need for a more holistic approach to drive agricultural yields and closer collaboration across different stakeholders, Bayer CropScience proposes a five-point-plan to bring about a New Revolution in Agriculture:
- Leading innovation
- Enabling farmers big and small
- Driving a sustainable intensification of agriculture
- Enhancing human health
- Extending partnerships
With its five-point-plan, Bayer CropScience aims at taking the “Green Revolution” to the next level. The term “Green Revolution” was coined in the 1960s for a series of major investments and developments in agricultural research and technology that significantly increased agricultural production around the world. Prominent examples include new high-yielding cereal varieties and hybrid seeds, chemical crop protection, synthetic fertilizers, new and more widespread methods of irrigation as well as a modernization of management techniques. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug (1914-2009) is commonly known as the “father of the Green Revolution” for integrating the different streams of agricultural research into viable technologies which saved millions from hunger, famine and misery. While the Green Revolution resulted in significant increases in food supply, it has been criticized for neglecting environmental degradation and leading to increases in income inequality. In 2008, Bayer CropScience raised calls for a second Green Revolution on the back of the international food crisis, to highlight the urgent need to sharply increase agricultural productivity amidst trends of lowered public and private investments into the sector.
Green Revolution on Wikipedia
Five-point-plan to bring about a New Revolution in Agriculture