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.

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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:

1. No-till
2. Integrated soil fertility management
3. Precision agriculture
4. Water harvesting
5. Drip irrigation
6. Sprinkler irrigation
7. Heat tolerance
8. Drought tolerances
9. Nitrogen-use efficiency
10. 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.

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