【科研快讯 – Nature】Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management

Nathaniel D. Mueller James S. Gerber Matt Johnston Deepak K. Ray Navin Ramankutty & Jonathan A. Foley. Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management. Nature 490 254–257 (11 October 2012) doi:10.1038-nature11420.

Abstract

In the coming decades a crucial challenge for humanity will be meeting future food demands without undermining further the integrity of the Earth’s environmental systems^{1 2 3 4 5 6}. Agricultural systems are already major forces of global environmental degradation^{4 7} but population growth and increasing consumption of calorie- and meat-intensive diets are expected to roughly double human food demand by 2050 (ref. 3). Responding to these pressures there is increasing focus on ‘sustainable intensification’ as a means to increase yields on underperforming landscapes while simultaneously decreasing the environmental impacts of agricultural systems^{2 3 4}