Monsanto to the rescue.

Monsanto's three-point commitment to growing yields sustainably includes:

• Develop better seeds - Monsanto will double yield in its three core crops of corn, soybeans and cotton by 2030, compared to a base year of 2000. The company will also establish a $10 million grant designed to accelerate breakthrough public sector research in wheat and rice yield.
• Conserve resources - Monsanto will develop seeds that will reduce by one-third the amount of key resources required to grow crops by the year 2030. The company will also join with others to address habitat loss and water quality in agriculturally important areas.
• Help improve farmers' lives - The company will help improve the lives of farmers, including an additional five million people in resource-poor farm families by 2020.

It's not clear that these things can be done, or will be done, but they are certainly good things. I suspect that they can be done, and done profitably.

Experts say it will be necessary to produce as much food between now and 2050 as has been produced in the last 10,000 years. As agriculture uses 70 percent of the world's fresh water and more than half of the habitable land, much of the production increase must come from increased crop yields.

Sobering numbers.

In special circumstances for resource-poor farmers, Monsanto also is committed to sharing its expertise in a way that gives them access to modern agricultural technology.

For example, one of the first of these projects was announced in March, a collaboration with the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Monsanto to develop drought-tolerant maize for Africa that will be made available to farmers royalty-free.

The AATF is leading this project in which Monsanto and CIMMYT are donating unique germplasm and technology expertise. In addition, Monsanto is contributing breeding tools and the same water-use efficiency genes being developed for commercial global markets. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation are providing funding for product testing and development in Africa. Government researchers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa are also playing a key role in this public-private partnership called Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA). Among other partnerships, Monsanto will also work with public institutions to develop products for non-commercial crops that are important in some world areas, including cassava, cowpea and papaya.

This is the right approach. I think it's important that developing countries be involved in developing their own agriculture. They gain expertise as well as access to technology, and so may be able to continue in future or apply those skills to other needs. I think that philanthropists - such as Gates and now Monsanto - would do well to fund these development centers at higher levels for longer periods.