FAO Develops Portal On Increased Food Production

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says it has developed online data portal that will unlock the potential to provide food for the rapidly growing population.

In a statement issued in Lagos, FAO said that the Global Agro-ecological Zones Portal would help identify areas that would aid global food production, while maintaining natural resources base

The statement said that the tool also would assist to find a lasting solution to the global climate challenge.

“The portal can help identify where there are ‘bridgeable yield gaps’ and what causes them.

“It allows for the formulation of appropriate investment policies and the provision of appropriate support to farmers to help them produce more food,” it said.

FAO said that the necessary growth would be achieved by increasing the amount of food produced on existing agricultural land as most of the world’s best farmlands were already being used.

It said that the other issue it could tackle was water scarcity which had resulted to limiting expansion of farming areas.

“We suggest a critical sustainable food production to close the “yield gaps” that continue to plague the farming sector in many parts of the world.

“The term “yield gap” refers to the difference between how much food a farm actually produces and how much food it would be capable of producing if appropriate practices, inputs, technologies and knowledge are applied.

“The gaps can be quite wide because a recent FAO study found that in some rural areas of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, crop production can run as low as 30-40 per cent of potential,” FAO said.

The statement said that the portal was developed by FAO and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.