TIMELINE: Ground-breaking moments in global agriculture

> Great strides in agriculture have been made since through innovation, technology and genetics to help feed the world's growing population. Despite this, however, more than 1 billion people went hungry in 2009, 100 million more than last year. The increase is not a result of poor harvests, but due to high food prices, particularly in developing nations, and lower incomes and lost jobs due to the economic downturn. Here are some landmark moments in world agriculture: * 1701 - Briton Jethro Tull invented the seed drill, an improved plough that was drawn by a horse. * 1798 - Thomas Malthus predicts impending famine as population growth outstrips food production.

"The increase is not a result of poor harvests, but due to high food prices, particularly in developing nations, and lower incomes and lost jobs due to the economic downturn"* 1831 - American Cyrus McCormick introduced his mechanical reaper, which was mass produced by 1847 in a Chicago factory. * 1863 - The U.S. Agriculture Department, which forecasts crop production for major countries across the globe, publishes its first monthly crop report. * 1866 - Austrian Gregor Mendel laid the foundation of modern genetics by showing traits pass from parents to offspring. * 1873 - American John Deere designed the first cast steel plough.

* 1881 - First generation of hybrid corn to increase production created. * 1892 - First successful gasoline engine farm tractor built by American inventor John Froelich. * 1923 - Commercial hybrid seed corn developed by Henry Wallace, who in 1926 founded the Hi-Bred Corn Co (now Pioneer Hi-Bred International). * 1934 - Worst drought in U.S. history swept through the Great Plains and covered more than 75 percent of the country.

* 1944 - Normal Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution to increase food production, joins Rockefeller Foundation. * 1945 - Beginning of the Green Revolution to increase food production through new cultivars, irrigation, fertilizer, pesticides and mechanization. Continued