The AgriTech Toolbox enables
researchers and policymakers to examine how alternative
agricultural practices and technologies can impact farm yields,
food prices, natural resource use, hunger, malnutrition, land use
and global trade in 2050, when climate change impacts may be
severe. As a result, it can inform the right mix of policies and
investments needed to tackle the challenges agriculture faces in
the coming decades.
AgriTech Toolbox can address the current knowledge gap agriculture faces:
- Where do we target investments?
- What technologies can increase yield and improve sustainability?
- Which technologies may help farmers adapt to climate change?
- How can we tailor solutions to best address needs of local farmers?
The AgriTech Toolbox is built from the
results of a multi-year research project by the International Food
Policy Research Institute, culminating in a book titled “Food
Security in a World of Natural Resource Scarcity: The Role of
Agricultural Technologies”. The book reports on the impacts of key
agricultural technologies and practices in every major region and
hundreds of countries around the globe. Specifically, the book and
online database report the yield impacts of the adoption of 10 key
technologies for maize, wheat and rice by 2050, as well as related
changes in harvested area, food production, trade, global food
prices, hunger and malnutrition.
The AgriTech Toolbox allows you to
work with these data directly. By selecting a country or region
along with a technology, climate scenario, crop and water
management practice – you can explore how key agricultural and
food security parameters will change in 2050. This information may
be used to develop investment strategies and scale up agricultural
technologies in key food insecure but also breadbasket regions.
Explore the tool and learn how agriculture can meet the needs of our changing world.
The AgriTech toolbox models the
impacts of 10 technologies on farm yields, food prices, natural
resource use, hunger, malnutrition, land use and global trade:
- No-till: Minimal or no soil disturbance, often in combination with retention of residues, crop rotation, and use of cover crop
- Integrated soil fertility management: A combination of chemical fertilizers, crop residues, and manure/compost
- Precision agriculture: GPS-assisted delivery of agricultural inputs as well as low-tech management practices that aim to control all field parameters, from input delivery to plant spacing to water level
- Water harvesting: Water channeled toward crop fields from macro- or microcatchment systems, or through the use of earth dams, ridges, or graded contours
- Drip irrigation: Water applied as a small discharge directly around each plant or to the root zone, often using microtubing
- Sprinkler irrigation: Water distributed under pressure through a pipe network and delivered to the crop via overhead sprinkler nozzles
- Heat tolerance: Improved varieties showing characteristics that allow the plant to maintain yields at higher temperatures
- Drought tolerance: Improved varieties showing characteristics that allow the plant to have better yields compared with regular varieties due to enhanced soil moisture uptake capabilities and reduced vulnerability to water deficiency
- Nitrogen-use efficiency: Plants that respond better to fertilizers
- Crop Protection: The practice of managing pests, plant diseases, weeds and other pest organisms that damage agricultural crops
"Food Security in a World of Natural
Resource Scarcity: The Role of Agricultural Technologies" was
launched by the International Food Policy Research Institute in
February 2014 and is the backbone of the AgriTech Toolbox. The
book compares the effects that different technologies have on crop
yields and resource use, particularly harvested area, water and
nutrients. By modeling technology-induced changes in crop yields,
the analysis also helps to explain how the mix of technologies may
influence global food markets in terms of changes in food prices
and trade flows, as well as calorie availability, with a focus on
developing countries. Transparent evidence-based information to
support decisions on the potential of alternative technologies
remains scarce. "Food Security in a World of Natural Resource
Scarcity" fills this gap with a focus on researchers and
policymakers.
The study used a combination of
spatially disaggregated crop models linked to economic models to
explore the impacts on agricultural productivity and global food
markets of 10 alternative agricultural technologies as well as
selected technology combinations for maize, rice, and wheat, the
world's key staple crops. The technologies cover a broad range of
traditional, conventional, and advanced practices with proven
potential for yield improvement as well as the potential for wide
geographic application if appropriate investments, support
policies and institutions (all of which have associated costs) are
put in place. The chosen technologies are the following:
- No-till
- Integrated soil fertility management
- Precision agriculture
- Water harvesting
- Drip irrigation
- Sprinkler irrigation
- Heat tolerance
- Drought tolerances
- Nitrogen-use efficiency
- Crop Protection
The technologies were identified
through literature reviews and expert consultations and chosen for
their proven potential to increase agricultural productivity as
well as enhance environmental sustainability (through reduction of
fertilizer and water use, for example). An 11th technology,
organic agriculture, is also assessed in the book, but was not
added in the online tool, due to its limited yield benefits for
maize, rice and wheat.
The productivity effects of these
technologies were simulated through a groundbreaking approach that
combines a crop modeling tool (DSSAT model) with a economic
model (IMPACT model). The DSSAT model is a biophysical crop model
that allows users to simulate how crop yields change following the
adoption of different technologies. The IMPACT model is a partial
equilibrium global model that uses the productivity changes
simulated through DSSAT to estimate how these affect global food
production and trade, as well as food security worldwide.
Raw data can be downloaded by clicking
on the 'download button' on the top right of the menu bar, both in
the crop model and economic model pages.
We thank CropLife International, the
U.S. State Department, and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies,
Institutions, and Markets for funding this work. We appreciate the
guidance and insights from the Study Advisory Panel members for
the project that led to this book, in particular, Timothy Benton,
Jason Clay, Elisio Contini, Swapan Datta, Lindiwe Sibanda, and Ren
Wang. We thank HarvestChoice for hosting the AgriTech toolbox.
If you have any comment, suggestion or
feedback about this application or any of the data layers, please
use our
feedback form.