Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Author of 'Best Things First', 'False Alarm', and 'Skeptical Environmentalist', President Copenhagen Consensus: smart solutions through economic prioritization

Feb 23, 2023, 9 tweets

One of 12 best solutions for world's poorest:

Agricultural R&D

$5.5bn/yr ➡️

133m fewer hungry and $184bn/yr

Pls retweet to support

@USAID @giz_gmbh @jica_direct_en

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Sustained agricultural R&D for poorer world means

133m fewer hungry

+ enormous benefits for farmers (higher prod) and consumers (lower price)

Summary of this amazing solution in Philippine Daily Inquirer (2.7m readers), one of 35+ papers across world

opinion.inquirer.net/161230/time-fo…

Agricultural R&D underfunded in poor countries: e.g. cassava, sorghum, yams

Higher-yielding seeds deliver benefits even when other problems (little irrigation and mechanization or bad market access)

Here investment for CGIAR, the organization that did original green revolution

A hundred years ago, two-thirds of humanity was starving

But still today, 10% malnourished

We can do much better: invest in agricultural R&D to increase yields

New research: 133 million fewer hungry + each dollar delivers $33 of social benefits

copenhagenconsensus.com/publication/ha…

Hunger still affects 769 million people, costing $1 trillion a year

We need a second green revolution:

R&D to increase yields, making food cheaper and more plentiful

New research: A dollar spent here delivers an astounding $33 of social benefits

copenhagenconsensus.com/publication/ha…

Background: The world has promised everything to everyone with UN's Sustainable Development Goals #SDGs

But we're not delivering

We'll be half a century late

How to fix?

If we can't do everything, let's do the smartest first

The world has 169 priorities, from peace, climate change, hunger, disease and education to more recycling

169 priorities is like having none

And we're failing

We've identified the world's 12 most effective policies

Here writing with Debroy, PM Modi's economic advisor

economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-com…

In total, I'm writing about 12 of the world's most effective solutions over the next three months in more than 35 papers around the world

Here is my introduction to the most effective policies — the ones that will deliver vast positive impact for the world at a very modest cost

This is from Indonesia, The Jakarta Times
thejakartapost.com/opinion/2023/0…

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