共用题干 More,Rural Research Is Needed 1 Agricultural research funding is vital if the world is to feed ...

共用题干
More,Rural Research Is Needed 1 Agricultural research funding is vital if the world is to feed itself better than it does now.Dr.Tony Fischer,crop scientist,said demand was growing at 2.5% per year,but with modern technologies and the development of new ones,the world should be able to stay ahead. 2 "The global decline in investment in international agricultural research must be rwersed if significant progress is to be made towards reducing malnutrition and poverty,"he said. 3 Research is needed to solve food production,land degradation and environmental problems.Secure local food supplies led to economic growth which,in turn,slowed population growth.Dr.Fischer painted a picture of the world's ability to feed itself in the first 25 years,when the world's population is expected to rise from 5.8 to 8 billion people.He said that things will probably hold or improve but there'll still be a lot of hungry people.The biggest concentration of poor and hungry people would be in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia in 2020,similar to the current pattern.If there is any change,a slight improvement will be seen in southern Asia,but not in sub-Saharan Africa.The major improvement will be in East Asia,South America and South一East Asia. 4 The developing world was investing about 0.5%,or $8 billion a year,of its agricultural gross domestic product(GDP)on research,and the developed world was spending 2.5%of its GDP.Dr.Fischer said more was needed from all countries. 5 He said crop research could produce technologies that spread across many countries,such as wheat roduction research having spin-offs for Mexico,China or India. 6 "Technologies still need to be refined for the local conditions but a lot of the strategic research can ave global application,so that money can be used very efficiently,"Dr.Fischer said. 7 Yields of rice,wheat and maize have grown impressively in the past 30 years,especially in developing countries.For example,maize production rose from 2-8 tonnes per hectare between 1950 and 1995.But technologies driving this growth,such as high-yield varieties,fertilisers,and irrigation,were becoming exhausted."If you want to save the land for non-agricultural activities,for forests and wildlife, you're going to have to increase yield,"Dr.Fischer said. Land can be saved for other purposes______.