[HideousKojima]

>What is the skill tree of development, and how do we speed run it?

There used to be an easy answer to this, now it's not politically or morally acceptable to support: colonization. Colonization is what brought modern farming practices (and their accompanying massive yields) as well as the development of the infrastructure needed to support it and other developments.

[r14c]

My guess is that's because people don't like being colonized. "Modern" industrial farming is also depleting the soil, so I'm not sure the jury is out on it actually being "better" than local practices.