Sustainable intensification for a larger global rice bowl

Rice is the main staple food for more than half of the global population, and as the world population grows, demand for rice is expected to grow, too. The challenge is how to produce more rice on existing cropland, and do so while minimizing the environmental impact. Here the authors, including Bruce Linquist, provide an analysis of roadmaps toward sustainable intensification for a larger global rice bowl. The research was published Dec. 9 in Nature Communications.

The global assessment was led by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Huazhong Agricultural University, in collaboration with partners from other 11 institutions, including UC Davis. This study makes a first step in identifying systems with largest opportunities for increasing crop yields and resource-use efficiency, providing a blueprint to orient agricultural research and development programs at national to global scales.

This comprehensive global evaluation of production systems for a major staple food crop found that there is still substantial room to increase rice production and reduce the negative environmental impact. Furthermore, these two goals do not have to be in conflict.