The Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) continued for a third day Tuesday in Montpellier, France.
About one thousand participants - a group consisting of scientists, policymakers, aid experts, businessmen, and advocacy groups - are meeting in an attempt to devise a way out of the hunger crisis by producing an action plan for G8 and G20 countries to boost agriculture and help ensure food security.
Released last week and presented at the conference, a new report, "Transforming Agricultural Research for Development," calls for a big push to develop agriculture in the poorest countries if the world hopes to feed itself in future decades. The report, the result of consultations with over 2,000 experts and national research organizations around the world, notes that with the world's population soaring to nine billion by mid-century, crop yields must rise - yet climate change threatens to slash them.
"It's a huge problem," said Sir Gordon Conway from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, the conference's keynote speaker.
"We have more than a billion people hungry at the moment, then on top of that we're going to have to feed a growing human population - we're looking at having to double food production by 2050."
The Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development continues through March 31st.
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