Intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa

Africa produces around 60% of the rice the continent consumes, relying heavily on rice imports to fulfill the rest of the domestic demand. Over the past 10 years, the rice-agricultural area increased nearly 40%, while average yield remained stagnant. Here we used a process-based crop simulation mode...

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Main Authors: Yuan, Shen, Saito, Kazuki, van Oort, Pepijn A. J., Ittersum, Martin K. van, Peng, Shaobing, Grassini, Patricio
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Springer 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139044
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author Yuan, Shen
Saito, Kazuki
van Oort, Pepijn A. J.
Ittersum, Martin K. van
Peng, Shaobing
Grassini, Patricio
author_browse Grassini, Patricio
Ittersum, Martin K. van
Peng, Shaobing
Saito, Kazuki
Yuan, Shen
van Oort, Pepijn A. J.
author_facet Yuan, Shen
Saito, Kazuki
van Oort, Pepijn A. J.
Ittersum, Martin K. van
Peng, Shaobing
Grassini, Patricio
author_sort Yuan, Shen
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Africa produces around 60% of the rice the continent consumes, relying heavily on rice imports to fulfill the rest of the domestic demand. Over the past 10 years, the rice-agricultural area increased nearly 40%, while average yield remained stagnant. Here we used a process-based crop simulation modelling approach combined with local weather, soil, and management datasets to evaluate the potential to increase rice production on existing cropland area in Africa and assess cropland expansion and rice imports by year 2050 for different scenarios of yield intensification. We find that Africa can avoid further increases in rice imports, and even reduce them, through a combination of cropland expansion following the historical trend together with closure of the current exploitable yield gap by half or more. Without substantial increase in rice yields, meeting future rice demand will require larger rice imports and/or land conversion than now.
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spelling CGSpace1390442025-12-08T10:11:39Z Intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa Yuan, Shen Saito, Kazuki van Oort, Pepijn A. J. Ittersum, Martin K. van Peng, Shaobing Grassini, Patricio crop production agricultural land management farmland rice cultivation yields Africa produces around 60% of the rice the continent consumes, relying heavily on rice imports to fulfill the rest of the domestic demand. Over the past 10 years, the rice-agricultural area increased nearly 40%, while average yield remained stagnant. Here we used a process-based crop simulation modelling approach combined with local weather, soil, and management datasets to evaluate the potential to increase rice production on existing cropland area in Africa and assess cropland expansion and rice imports by year 2050 for different scenarios of yield intensification. We find that Africa can avoid further increases in rice imports, and even reduce them, through a combination of cropland expansion following the historical trend together with closure of the current exploitable yield gap by half or more. Without substantial increase in rice yields, meeting future rice demand will require larger rice imports and/or land conversion than now. 2024-01-27 2024-02-07T14:18:45Z 2024-02-07T14:18:45Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139044 en Open Access application/pdf Springer Yuan, Shen, Kazuki Saito, Pepijn A. J. van Oort, Martin K. van Ittersum, Shaobing Peng, and Patricio Grassini. 2023. Intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa. Nature Communications 15(1): 835.
spellingShingle crop production
agricultural land management
farmland
rice
cultivation
yields
Yuan, Shen
Saito, Kazuki
van Oort, Pepijn A. J.
Ittersum, Martin K. van
Peng, Shaobing
Grassini, Patricio
Intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa
title Intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa
title_full Intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa
title_fullStr Intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa
title_full_unstemmed Intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa
title_short Intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa
title_sort intensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in africa
topic crop production
agricultural land management
farmland
rice
cultivation
yields
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139044
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AT ittersummartinkvan intensifyingriceproductiontoreduceimportsandlandconversioninafrica
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