Thomas Robert Malthus predicted 220 years ago that human population would increase faster than food production, An Essay on the Principle of Population’ (1798). This did not happen as he had anticipated. Nearly 200 years later Esther Boserup, ‘The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The economics of agrarian change under population pressure’ (1965), offered a theory to explain why Malthus was wrong, and food production was mainly keeping up with demand. In her theory Boserup describes how agriculture has progressed in a series of steps, which is sometimes collectively referred to as 'intensification'. My question is, what will be the next step change which will raise food production?

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