Increasing Food Supply
Geography: AQA GCSE, topic 6.2.5
Which Strategies Can Increase Food Supply?
Global food demand is rising. Irrigation, aeroponics & hydroponics, biotechnology, appropriate technology, and the green revolution could increase global food supply.
Irrigation
- Irrigation is basically watering plants. By adding water to the right parts of plants at the right time, irrigation can increase crop growth and food production.
- For high-yielding crops, doubling the amount of water that crops receive can increase cereal/crop production from 1,000kg/hectare to 7,000kg/hectare.
- In 1998, 20% of the world's farmland was irrigated, but it produced 40% of all crops.
- Just irrigating land and watering crops properly could increase food supply massively.
Aeroponics and hydroponics
- In aeroponics, mist is used to give plants nutrients instead of soil.
- In hydroponics, a water solvent mixture is used to give plants nutrients instead of soil.
- In both hydroponics and aeroponics, the roots absorb the water for the plant.
- Vertical farms (plants are grown on top of each other in warehouses) usually use hydroponics.
- Less water is needed but the infrastructure for vertical farms and hydroponics is generally high.
- They are likely to have to operate on a large scale to be cost-effective.
The new green revolution
- The new green revolution happened in the 1960s.
- Genetic modification created new strains of crops like rice and maize, which had far higher yields than the older strains.
- The productivity of farms using these new crops jumped straight away.
- At the same time, agribusiness began to grow, with farmers using machines, growing their farm size, and using methods like crop rotation.
Use of biotechnology and GM
- Biotechnology focuses on editing genes or cells.
- Genetic modification in food production focuses on changing crops' DNA to make them more resistant to disease, more productive, more nutritious or just better tasting.
- Examples of GM strains of crops:
- In 2018, a new GM potato was designed to resist potato blight. This could reduce the use of chemical fungicides by over 90%.
- Golden rice is genetically engineered to contain Vitamin A, making it more nutritious.
Appropriate technology for farmers
- The lowest-hanging fruit to improve food production and global food supply seem to be using irrigation and good farming techniques that avoid soil erosion.
- Although biotechnology and aeroponics are very complicated, watering plants correctly and helping farmers to do this could be the most effective intervention.
Test yourself on Increasing Food Supply
Which of the following is NOT a method of growing plants without soil?
Examples of GM crops