Future challenges and opportunities for agricultural and forestry research

Abstract

—The products of agriculture and forestry are our most important renewable resources. Photosynthesis is the key biochemical process. Through the utilization of solar energy, the leaves of plants provide a net increase to the resources of the earth. This is manifested as food, feed, fiber, and organic raw products for industrial materials. Increased biological productivity holds the key to future availability of renewable resources, and the ease by which the inevitable transition will occur from the non-renewable to the renewable. Some of the many research options available for enhancement of primary productivity are enumerated. For the first time in history, we have both the opportunity and technological capability of providing sufficient food for all people, and to greatly improve the output of our forest resources. The potential capacity for global crop and food animal production is enormous. Attention should be directed toward mission oriented basic research with economically important crops and commodities, and to the application of the results of basic research to the resolution of problems relating to the productivity of renewable resources.