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Corn: Attainable crop yields

What you should know about this indicator

  • Attainable yields are more conservative than biophysical 'potential yields', but should be achievable using current technologies and management (e.g. fertilizers and irrigation).
  • Attainable yields are based on assessments for the year 2000. Real attainable yield pre-2000 may be lower; and post-2000 may be higher than these values.
Corn: Attainable crop yields
Attainable yields are estimates of feasible crop yields calculated from high-yielding areas of similar climate. Yields are measured in tonnes per hectare.
Source
Mueller et al. (2012) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 2, 2026
Next expected update
March 2027
Date range
1850–2025
Unit
tonnes per hectare

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Mueller et al. – Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management

Retrieved on
March 26, 2024
Retrieved from
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11420
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Mueller, N., Gerber, J., Johnston, M. et al. (2012) - Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management. Nature 490, 254-257. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11420
Retrieved on
March 26, 2024
Retrieved from
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11420
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Mueller, N., Gerber, J., Johnston, M. et al. (2012) - Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management. Nature 490, 254-257. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11420

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Corn: Attainable crop yields”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser (2022) - “Crop Yields”. Data adapted from Mueller et al.. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260417-112857/grapher/maize-attainable-yield.html [online resource] (archived on April 17, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Mueller et al. (2012) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Mueller et al. (2012) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Corn: Attainable crop yields” [dataset]. Mueller et al., “Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management” [original data]. Retrieved April 17, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260417-112857/grapher/maize-attainable-yield.html (archived on April 17, 2026).

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