Describe the strategies used to increase food production and their advantages and drawbacks

What this dot point is asking

SEAB wants you to describe the strategies used to increase food production and to weigh their advantages and drawbacks. The central insight is that there are many ways to grow more food, mainly by raising the yield from existing land through technology, and that while these have fed billions, they often carry environmental and social costs, so each strategy is a trade-off.

The answer

Raising yields with technology: the Green Revolution

The most important strategy has been raising the yield (food produced per area) using a package of technology, often called the Green Revolution:

• High-yield varieties (HYVs): seeds bred to produce far more grain per plant.
• Fertilisers: add nutrients to boost growth.
• Pesticides: reduce losses to pests and disease.
• Irrigation: supplies water so crops grow even where rainfall is low.

Together these dramatically raised food output per hectare, transforming countries such as India from food deficit toward self-sufficiency.

Other strategies to increase production

• Mechanisation: machinery (tractors, harvesters) lets larger areas be farmed quickly and efficiently.
• Biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) crops: varieties engineered to resist pests, drought or disease, or to yield more.
• Controlled-environment and high-tech farming: greenhouses, hydroponics and vertical farms grow food intensively, even in cities, using little land.
• Bringing new land into farming: clearing or reclaiming land to expand the area cultivated.
• Improving farming methods: better crop varieties, multiple cropping and improved livestock.

Advantages and drawbacks

Each strategy is a trade-off:

• Advantages: higher yields and more food, improving availability and helping to feed growing populations; some methods (greenhouses, GM crops) can produce food in difficult conditions.
• Drawbacks: environmental harm (fertiliser and pesticide pollution, soil degradation, water depletion and salinisation from over-irrigation); high cost of inputs, which poorer farmers may not afford; dependence on bought seeds and chemicals; and, for new land, the destruction of forests and habitats.

The challenge is to increase production without exhausting the soil, water and ecosystems on which future harvests depend, which leads to the idea of sustainable food production.

Examples in context

Example 1. The Green Revolution in India. From the 1960s, India adopted high-yield wheat and rice varieties with fertilisers and irrigation, transforming the country from food shortage toward self-sufficiency and feeding a fast-growing population. Yet in intensively farmed areas, the costs appeared: falling water tables from over-irrigation, soil degradation and fertiliser pollution. It is the classic example of how raising yields with technology can hugely increase production while carrying environmental drawbacks.

Example 2. Vertical farming in land-scarce cities. In land-scarce places such as Singapore, vertical and indoor farms grow vegetables in stacked layers under controlled conditions, achieving high yields on tiny footprints with little water and no pesticide run-off. This high-tech strategy boosts local food production where land is scarce, though at the cost of high energy use and capital, illustrating both the advantage and the drawback of controlled-environment farming.

Try this

Q1. Describe two strategies used to increase food production. [2 marks]

• Cue. Using high-yield seed varieties with fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation to raise yields per area (the Green Revolution), and irrigation or mechanisation; biotechnology, high-tech farming or bringing new land into cultivation are also acceptable.

Q2. Explain one advantage of using high-yield crops to increase food production. [2 marks]

• Cue. High-yield crop varieties produce far more food per hectare than traditional ones, greatly increasing the total amount of food produced on existing land and improving availability to feed a growing population.

Q3. Explain one environmental drawback of intensive farming methods. [2 marks]

• Cue. Heavy fertiliser and pesticide use can pollute water and harm wildlife, and over-irrigation can deplete water supplies and cause salinisation, while intensive farming can degrade and erode soils, harming the resources future production depends on.