The world is facing the monumental challenge of doubling its food production by 2050 with fewer resources. More than 1800 scientists gathered in Brisbane this week for the 19th World Congress of Soil Science, with food security a key focus. With the global population expected to top 9.2 billion by 2050, the world will need to repeat the Green Revolution that saw food production double between 1960 and 1985. But with less land, water and fertiliser available, the focus will have to be on working smarter.

AAP Reports (2 August 2010):

The world is facing the monumental challenge of doubling its food production by 2050 with fewer resources, scientists say.

More than 1800 scientists in Brisbane this week for the 19th World Congress of Soil Science, with food security a key focus.

With the global population expected to top 9.2 billion by 2050, experts say the world will need to repeat the Green Revolution that saw food production double between 1960 and 1985.

But with less land, water and fertiliser available, the focus will have to be on working smarter.

The chief of the CSIRO’s land and water division Dr Neil McKenzie told the congress that Australia currently feeds 60 million people but faces major challenges to increase production.

“Maintaining adequate food production levels in light of increasing population, climate change impacts, increasing costs of energy, constraints on carbon, land degradation and the finite supply of productive soils is a major challenge,” he said.

“Despite great improvements in crop production, Australia faces specific issues related to soil degradation.

“As many as 25 million hectares are affected by acidity and large areas have unsustainable rates of soil erosion.”

In opening the conference, Queensland Governor Penny Wensley said soil scientists must engage the public if they are to meet the demands of the planet for food and sustainability.

Ms Wensley, a former Australian ambassador for the environment, said scientists have an important public advocacy role in the face of “growing disconnect between food production and consumption on our heavily and increasingly urbanised planet”.

“Soil scientists and researchers leave (public advocacy) to others at their peril,” Ms Wensley said.

Keynote speaker Dr Robert Zeigler, the director general of the International Rice Research Institute, said breeding better rice varieties and developing more efficient water management systems would be critical.

“Yield growth rates for rice have stagnated due to decades of neglect in research and infrastructure, and area expansion has nearly stopped,” Dr Zeigler said.

“Projected demand will outstrip supply in the near-to-medium term unless something is done to reverse current trends.”

The congress will hear that Australia, with its phosphorous-deficient soils, will face particular challenges from diminishing global reserves of phosphate rock, used to make fertilisers.

Dr Eric Craswell, from the Australian National University, said mined phosphate rock was critical to food production because there was no substitute for phosphorus.

“Phosphorus cannot be synthesised or manufactured in a laboratory and without sufficient phosphorus we cannot grow crops,” Dr Craswell said.

A recent estimate suggests that global production of phosphorus fertilisers will peak in 2033, and will be one third of that peak level by the end of the century.

“Irrespective of when the peak occurs, exploitation of a non-renewable resource such as phosphate rock will peak and prices will increase as it becomes more scarce,” Dr Craswell says.

He said more research is needed to improve the efficiency of phosphorus fertiliser manufacturing and application, phosphorus recycling, and the efficiency with which crops utilise phosphorus from the soil.

A team of soil scientists and agronomists from the Queensland government is developing more effective diagnostic soil tests for assessing the status of available phosphorus and more efficient phosphorus fertiliser application methods.

Dr Philip Moody, the principal soil scientist at the Department of Environment and Resource Management, will present a paper on the team’s work.

Source: www.news.brisbanetimes.com.au