Growing on less water

 
Published: Sunday 30 April 2000

by the year 2025, it has been predicted that around 2.7 billion people will be living in regions plagued by water scarcity. To face this challenge, scientists and farmers are already innovating new crops like 'miracle rice' and 'hardy corn' to help ensure food production in these regions.

"The world is facing a deadly water gap: some 20 per cent more water is needed than is available to feed the nearly three billion additional people who will be alive by 2025, and there is no way to manufacture new water," says Ismail Serageldin, chairperson of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research ( cgiar ).

Serageldin points out: "Crops that are improved to flourish in low water environments make one key component in an overall global water strategy."

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