yield gap

This article states that good quality seed is almost universally considered a requirement for high productivity in all potato production systems. Potato seed sector development is thus a major concern of governments, researchers, development agencies, and civil society organizations. »

This study is an attempt to develop an innovation consultation approach for yield gap assessment in sub-Saharan Africa, based on syngergies between modelling techniques and historical non-published data of potato experiments. Poor quality seed and bacterial wilt were the main yield gap drivers. »

This letter provides a quantitative assessment of the degree to which major agricultural countries in west and east Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can join the ranks of the world most productive crop producing regions »

This article demonstrates the potential to track smallholder maize yield variation in western Kenya, using a combination of 1-m imagery and intensive field sampling on thousands of fields over 2 years. The emergence of satellite sensors that can routinely observe millions of individual smallholder farms raises possibilities for monitoring and understanding agricultural productivity in many regions of the world. »

This article, published by the PNAS Journal, presents a study that provides insight about the challenge in meeting the projected tripled cereal demand by 2050 due to expected population growth and modest changes in diets in 10 SSA countries, through scenarios of yield gap closure. Recent studies indicate that the global increase in food demand by 2050 can be met through closing the gap between current farm yield and yield potential on existing cropland. Here, however, we estimate it will not be feasible to meet future SSA cereal demand on existing production area by yield gap closure alone. »

This article in the Agronomy for Sustainable Development Journal explores some of the existing methods to assess potential grain yield, the size of the gap between average and rainfall-limited potential yield and to suggest pathways for future gains in crop yields in the presence of soil degradation, climate change and seasonal variability of rainfall. They focus mainly on cereal and grain legume crops but recognise that oilseed crops such as canola and mustard play an important role in many rainfed cropping systems. »