NASA Inspired Speed Breeding Technique May Help Feed Earth's Burgeoning Population

Sowmya Kolluru
Sat, 07 Apr 2018 14:49:31 -0700

Experts estimate that by the year 2050, the world’s population will swell from the current 7.3 billion to over 9.5 billion, with just nine countries accounting for half the growth. If accurate, conventional farming methods, which revolve around growing one or two crops annually, will be unable to sustain the increase in food demand. Now, some Australian scientists may have found a way to cost-effectively accelerate crop yields with a technique called speed breeding, inspired by NASA’s experiments to grow wheat in space.