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Show Research can boost Food Production Much has been done through - agricultural research to increase food production in the past 50 years; and much can yet be done, asserts Dr. K. W. Hill, Head, Plant Science Department, Depart-ment, Utah State University. As an example he said, "When I was doing work on my doctorate doc-torate degree in Nebraska in 1950, the state of Illinois averaged 50 bushels of corn per acre. That was the first time any state had averaged that high. Now 25 years later, they are growing 100 bushels per acre in Illinois and Iowa. I would attribute at-tribute this increase to plant breeding research and to management including use of about five times as much fertilizer fer-tilizer as before. Also, they have much better insect and weed control and more irrigation. "One wonders what the end may be. I .would expect that in the next 25 years production will probably go up about 50 percent." per-cent." He noted that wheat and rice yields in many areas of the world are now double what they were but a few years ago. He said, "If someone had told me when I was an undergraduate that we would someday grow 150 bushels of wheat per acre, I would have told them that they were crazy. But it is being done quite regularly. Yields at that time were about 50 to 65 bushels per acre. Now, up to 250 bushel yields are obtained on small plots. I suppose there are biological limits , since you can only have so many spears of wheat sticking up on one acre of land. We probably can't go much higher than about 300 bushels per acre." We could do much to increase food yields and reduce fertilizer requirements if the ability to take nitrogen from the air, where there is plenty, and convert it into usable form for the plants could be incorporated into the three main crops: corn, wheat, and rice. 1 Dr. Hill said, "If genes that make this possible, such as those in alfalfa, could be introduced into corn, wheat and rice, it would cut down the need for nitrogen fertilizer by about 90 percent. Some additional plants are being found that have this ability. Some corn has been found in Brazil that has the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. The research " challenge is to transfer those characteristics to other desirable corn plants by breeding. That is a long, tedious process requiring many years." The USU plant science head stated, "Many of the advancements ad-vancements in food production of the past were made possible through work of the agricultural experiment stations. Increasing food production in the future also depends on research. I can't see any other way." |