A 2025 report by Barry K. Goodwin and Vincent H. Smith at the American Enterprise Institute provides important evidence of the substantial agricultural productivity gains achieved since the 1960s. The report explores how production of major food and animal feed crops outpaced population growth between 1961 and 2022, leading to significant increases in per capita calorie availability globally. This productivity growth resulted largely from public and private investments in agricultural research and development.

However, the report also sounds an alarm that ill-advised government policies could threaten the ability to sustain and further boost agricultural productivity in the future. Restrictions on developing and using genetically modified crops, organic production mandates, and declining public funding for agricultural R&D in high-income countries like the United States may limit the tools available to scientists, entrepreneurs and farmers to meet growing food demands.

This report further emphasizes the vital role of a strong enabling environment—policies, investments, and access to innovations that provide every farmer to access appropriate, productivity-enhancing innovations—as also highlighted in the GAP Report. Investing in agricultural innovation systems, embracing evidence-based technologies and practices, and expanding regional and global cooperation will be key for the sustaining agricultural productivity growth gains made in the past six decades.