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China Could Feed 2 Billion People With Better Irrigation
Cambridge MA (UPI) Jan 26, 2005 China's farmers can feed their nation's growing population by using expanded irrigation to support intense farming techniques, U.S. researchers said. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology systematically evaluated how water and land limitations affect food production in China. They modeled existing rainfall, climate and land-use patterns, then extrapolated different changes. Using the land currently being cultivated, China can feed between 1.1 and 1.7 billion people using available farming techniques and drawing on groundwater. If the same amount of land is irrigated, however, China can feed between 1.3 and 2.0 billion people - probably enough for China's expected 2030 population of 1.6 billion. The second scenario assumed no use of groundwater because underground reservoirs would be depleted with such an approach. "This is not an economic analysis. We're not saying that it's cost effective for China to feed all these people with domestic production," said Dennis McLaughlin of MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "It might be more cost effective for them to invest in new semiconductor plants and use the income to buy food from Canada." All rights reserved. Copyright 2004 by United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of by United Press International. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Massachusetts Institute of Technology SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express The Chinese Space Program - News, Policy and Technology China News from SinoDaily.com
Taikonauts On Moon A Far Off Dream For China Yet
Beijing (XNA) Jan 05, 2006A one-year lunar fly-by mission may start in April 2007 in China, but a manned flight to the Earth's neighbour may be a long way away, a chief lunar exploration scientist said last night. |
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