{
  "id": 17337116,
  "title": "How to Keep Global Agricultural Output Rising",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/16/how-to-keep-global-agricultural-output-rising",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-16T16:55:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Conversable Economist",
    "slug": "conversable-economist",
    "url": "https://conversableeconomist.com/2026/10/16/how-to-keep-global-agricultural-output-rising/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The world's population is projected to continue growing for the next 50-60 years, as declining birthrates will take time to offset the impact of increasing life expectancy. Additionally, there remains a significant number of individuals living in extreme poverty, with approximately 800 million people worldwide below the World Bank's extreme poverty threshold of $3 per day. As the global population expands and aims to elevate the standard of living for those in poverty, the demand for food production rises. The challenge is to determine how to maintain and increase global agricultural output.\n\nGrowth in total agricultural output can stem from various factors: expanding land, enhancing irrigation, intensifying the use of resources (labor, materials, and capital), and boosting productivity when utilizing the same land, irrigation, and input levels (through improved farming practices, better weather forecasts, advanced seeds, etc.). To measure these factors, gains in agricultural output that cannot be linked to quantifiable variables, such as land, irrigation, and inputs, are attributed to productivity gains.\n\nIn the 1960s, most growth in agriculture was driven by more intense use of inputs. By the 1990s and early 2000s, most growth came from productivity gains, with minimal contributions from expanding land or adding more inputs. However, since around 2011, growth in agricultural output has declined, as productivity gains have decreased while land expansion and input usage have compensated to some extent. The global challenge lies in discovering environmentally responsible methods to increase agricultural output.\n\nProductivity gains in agriculture vary across regions. In areas experiencing relatively high growth in agricultural output, this growth is primarily driven by additional inputs or additional land. Addressing this issue involves enhancing productivity growth in agriculture, particularly in regions facing economic and population pressures on the food supply. A potential solution proposed is the rise in global agricultural research and development (R&D) spending, with a focus on lower-income areas of the world.",
  "summary": "Global population is expected to keep rising for the next 50-60 years, because it will take awhile for the demographic force of declining birthrates to overcome the life expectancies. In addition, the world still has lots of very poor people: for example, about 800 million people around the world live below the World Bank extreme … Continue reading How to Keep Global Agricultural Output Rising…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}