The 2019 GAP Report examines the pivotal role of agricultural productivity – increasing crop and livestock production using existing or fewer inputs – in achieving global goals for environmental sustainability, economic development, and improved nutrition.
The 2019 Global Agricultural Productivity Report, "Productivity Growth for Sustainable Diets, and More," released today by Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, shows agricultural productivity growth – increasing output of crops and livestock with existing or fewer inputs – is growing globally at an average annual rate of 1.63 percent.
According to the report’s Global Agricultural Productivity Index, global agricultural productivity needs to increase at an average annual rate of 1.73 percent to sustainably produce food, feed, fiber, and bioenergy for 10 billion people in 2050. Productivity growth is strong in China and South Asia, but it is slowing in the agricultural powerhouses of North America, Europe, and Latin America.
The report calls attention to the alarmingly low levels of productivity growth in low-income countries, where there also are high rates of food insecurity, malnutrition, and rural poverty.
Agricultural productivity growth in low-income countries is rising at an average annual rate of just 1 percent. The UN Sustainable Development Goals call for doubling the productivity of the lowest-income farmers by 2030.
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