The contribution of agricultural Inputs in reducing undernourishment

With almost eight hundred millions people suffering from hunger in 2022, the world population projected to increase of 2 additional billions units by 2050 and the need to strongly curb greenhouse gas emissions, food production will remain a central issue in the next decades. In particular, the need to balance between environmental sustainability and output growth will require to make crucial choices. Agro-ecology, for example, strongly advocates the need to reduce inputs use in agriculture, often criticizing the intensification policy implemented during the so called "Green Revolution". However, every decision has benefits and costs. While the effect of agricultural inputs on yields has been largely studied, their contribution to nutritional outcomes has been partly overlooked. In order to take well-informed decisions about optimal inputs intensity, this is an aspect to be taken into consideration. Therefore, the present paper investigates the role of agricultural inputs in reducing undernourishment through fixed effect panel regressions at country level. By covering roughly half of the countries in the world for a 20 years' time period, it is shown that irrigation and mineral fertilizers positively and significantly contribute to reduce undernourishment. Pesticides and manure are also beneficial, but their contribution is less robust, while land per-capita seems to be inconsequential.