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
Environment, Development and Sustainability Open Access 09 November 2023
-
Near-term climate change impacts on food crops productivity in East Africa
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
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 full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
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).
DeWit, C. T. in Proc. Wageningen Agricultural University Conference 66–70 (Wageningen Univ. Press, 1981).
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).
Buresh, R. J., Sanchez, P. A. & Calhoun, F. (eds) Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa Vol. 51 (SSSA Special Publication, 1997).
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).
Sanchez, P. A. Science 295, 2019–2020 (2002).
UN Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger Halving Hunger: It Can Be Done 245 (Earthscan, 2005).
Sanchez, P. A. & Swaminathan, M. S. Science 307, 357–359 (2005).
Annan, K. in Proc. 2004 High-level Seminar Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (July, 2004); available via http://go.nature.com/ubLCJy.
Sanchez, P. A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 16775–16780 (2007).
Nziguheba, G. et al. Adv. Agron. (in the press).
Sanchez, P. A., Denning, G. L. & Nziguheba, G. Food Security 1, 37–44 (2009).
Denning, G. L. et al. PLoS Biol. 7, 2–10 (2009).
G8 to commit $20bn for food security. Financial Times (10 July, 2009); available via http://go.nature.com/n3ZKMz.
Conway, G. The Doubly Green Revolution (Penguin, 1997).
Buresh, R. J. & Cooper, P. J. M. (eds) Agroforestry Systems Vol. 47, (1999).
Kiptot, E., Hebinck, P., Franzel, S. & Richards, P. Agr. Syst. 94, 509–519 (2007).
Sanchez, P. A. et al. Science 325, 680–681 (2009).
Rockström, J. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 358, 1997–2009 (2003).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
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
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo853
This article is cited by
-
Agricultural diversification for crop yield stability: a smallholder adaptation strategy to climate variability in Ethiopia
Regional Environmental Change (2023)
-
Near-term climate change impacts on food crops productivity in East Africa
Theoretical and Applied Climatology (2023)
-
Grappling with the success and trade-offs of global nutrient redistribution
Environment, Development and Sustainability (2023)
-
Sustainable genomic research for food security in sub-Saharan Africa
Agriculture & Food Security (2021)
-
Global and regional drivers of land-use emissions in 1961–2017
Nature (2021)