| Summary: | Since the late 1950s, the share of the world’s population suffering from hunger and undernutrition has dropped from about one-third to one-seventh. Successes in agricultural development contributed substantially to these gains by feeding billions of people—by increasing food supplies, reducing food prices, and creating new income and employment opportunities for the rural poor. Progress has slowed, however, and efforts to meet future food needs are continually challenged by factors such as climate change, environmental degradation, and population growth. By drawing on lessons from the past, we can once again put agriculture to work in ending hunger and undernutrition. But to do this, something more is required—evidence on where, why, and how past interventions in agricultural development have succeeded.
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