Tripling crop yields in tropical Africa (original) (raw)

• Commentary
• Published: May 2010

Nature Geoscience volume 3, pages 299–300 (2010) Cite this article

• 2221 Accesses
• 187 Citations
• 19 Altmetric
• Metrics details

Subjects

Between 1960 and 2000, Asian and Latin American food production tripled, thanks to the use of high-yielding varieties of crops. Africa can follow suit, but only if depletion of soil nutrients is addressed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

• Grappling with the success and trade-offs of global nutrient redistribution

  • P. J. A. Kleinman
  • & R. D. Harmel
    Environment, Development and Sustainability Open Access 09 November 2023

• Near-term climate change impacts on food crops productivity in East Africa

  • Yeon-Woo Choi
  • & Elfatih A. B. Eltahir
    Theoretical and Applied Climatology Open Access 22 March 2023

• Quantifying the prevalence of (non)-response to fertilizers in sub-Saharan Africa using on-farm trial data

  • Generose Nziguheba
  • , Joost van Heerwaarden
  • & Bernard Vanlauwe
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems Open Access 21 October 2021

Access options

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 print issues and online access

$259.00 per year

only $21.58 per issue

Buy this article

• Purchase on SpringerLink
• Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Additional access options:

• Log in
• Learn about institutional subscriptions
• Read our FAQs
• Contact customer support

Figure 1: Maize field near Zomba, Malawi, likely to reach three tons per hectare.

The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

THE EARTH INSTITUTE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

References

1. Special Panel on Impact Assessment Contributions Made by the CGIAR and its Partners to Agricultural Development in Sub Saharan Africa (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, 2001).
2. http://www.faostat.org
3. DeWit, C. T. in Proc. Wageningen Agricultural University Conference 66–70 (Wageningen Univ. Press, 1981).
   Google Scholar
4. Quiñones, M. A., Borlaug, N. E. & Dowswell, C. R. in Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa Vol. 51 (eds Buresh, R. J., Sanchez, P. A. & Calhoun, F.) 81–96 (SSSA Special Publication, 1997).
   Google Scholar
5. Buresh, R. J., Sanchez, P. A. & Calhoun, F. (eds) Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa Vol. 51 (SSSA Special Publication, 1997).
   Google Scholar
6. Sanchez, P. A. et al. in Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa Vol. 51 (eds Buresh, R. J., Sanchez, P. A. & Calhoun, F.) 1–46 (SSSA Special Publication, 1997).
   Google Scholar
7. Sanchez, P. A. Science 295, 2019–2020 (2002).
   Article Google Scholar
8. UN Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger Halving Hunger: It Can Be Done 245 (Earthscan, 2005).
9. Sanchez, P. A. & Swaminathan, M. S. Science 307, 357–359 (2005).
   Article Google Scholar
10. Annan, K. in Proc. 2004 High-level Seminar Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (July, 2004); available via http://go.nature.com/ubLCJy.
    Google Scholar
11. Sanchez, P. A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 16775–16780 (2007).
    Article Google Scholar
12. Nziguheba, G. et al. Adv. Agron. (in the press).
13. Sanchez, P. A., Denning, G. L. & Nziguheba, G. Food Security 1, 37–44 (2009).
    Article Google Scholar
14. Denning, G. L. et al. PLoS Biol. 7, 2–10 (2009).
    Article Google Scholar
15. G8 to commit $20bn for food security. Financial Times (10 July, 2009); available via http://go.nature.com/n3ZKMz.
16. Conway, G. The Doubly Green Revolution (Penguin, 1997).
    Google Scholar
17. Buresh, R. J. & Cooper, P. J. M. (eds) Agroforestry Systems Vol. 47, (1999).
    Google Scholar
18. Kiptot, E., Hebinck, P., Franzel, S. & Richards, P. Agr. Syst. 94, 509–519 (2007).
    Article Google Scholar
19. Sanchez, P. A. et al. Science 325, 680–681 (2009).
    Article Google Scholar
20. Rockström, J. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 358, 1997–2009 (2003).
    Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Pedro A. Sánchez is at The Earth Institute, Columbia University, Lamont Campus, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, New York 10964, USA. psanchez@ei.columbia.edu,
   Pedro A. Sánchez

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sánchez, P. Tripling crop yields in tropical Africa.Nature Geosci 3, 299–300 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo853

Download citation

• Issue date: May 2010
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo853

This article is cited by