The world population is expected to increase by at least 50% over the next 40 years, but as more people join the middle classes it will require a doubling of grain production to feed.

Meanwhile, prime agricultural land is being lost to erosion, desertification, salinisation and urbanisation.

Can science help to meet demand at the same time as reducing the strain agriculture exerts on the planet?

The chief scientific advisor to the UK government, a professor of international development, a plant scientist who has written a book with her organic farmer husband, and a South African farmer who grows GM maize will debate the subject.

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