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Food security

A collaboration worth its weight in grain

Nature volume 537, pages 624–625 (2016)Cite this article

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Interventions to improve crop yields in rural China through collaboration between researchers and farmers illustrate how the goal of increasing global food production can be approached locally. See Letter p.671

It will be a challenge to feed an increasingly populated, urban and affluent planet while minimizing the loss of diverse and crucial ecosystems. The focus of attempts to increase global food production has therefore turned to closing yield gaps — increasing productivity of existing farmland to reach a crop's potential regionally attainable yield1,2. On page 671, Zhang et al.3 tackle this challenge at the ground level, working closely with small-scale farmers in rural China to increase crop yields in practical and locally appropriate ways. Their work raises the question: what exactly does it mean to talk about yield gaps on a local scale?

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Figure 1: Collaborating to improve farming skills.

Fusuo Zhang

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leah H. Samberg is at the Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.,

    Leah H. Samberg

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  1. Leah H. Samberg
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Correspondence to Leah H. Samberg.

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Samberg, L. A collaboration worth its weight in grain. Nature 537, 624–625 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19431

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