There is increasing demand for institutional reform in the agricultural sciences. This paper presents lessons from the content and directions in soil science research in India, to make a case for institutional reform in the agricultural sciences. It demonstrates how existing institutional and organizational contexts shape the research content of the soil sciences and its sub-disciplines. These contexts also shape the capacity of the soil sciences to understand and partner with other components of the wider natural resource management (NRM) innovation systems.

There are divergent views on what capacity development might mean in relation to agricultural biotechnology. The core of this debate is whether this should involve the development of human capital and research infrastructure, or whether it should encompass a wider range of activities which also include developing the capacity to use knowledge productively. This paper uses the innovation systems concept to shed light on this discussion, arguing that it is innovation capacity rather than science and technology capacity that has to be developed.

Iron deficiency is a widespread nutritional problem in developing countries, causing impaired physical activity and cognitive development, as well as maternal mortality. Although food fortification and supplementation programmes have been effective in some countries, their overall success remains limited. Biofortification, that is, breeding crops for higher micronutrient content, is a relatively new approach. We propose a methodology for ex-ante impact assessment of iron biofortification, which builds on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and a large household data set.

Mult-actors Agricultural Innovation Platform (MAIP) is established in rural communities where farmers and key value chain actors become empowered through participatory action research, knowledge co-creation and application, market linkages and so on. MAIPs, as a model for inclusive and collaborative innovation, are increasingly deployed in farmer communities to solve the last-mile bottleneck, namely, the empowerment of smallholder farmers and value chain actors to access innovation and services to drive field-level change.

The Office of Innovation launched the Portfolio Sense-Making initiative to mainstream the concept of innovation portfolio management across FAO teams and Divisions/Offices at HQ, Regional and Country levels. Portfolio Sense-Making involves systematically analyzing and visualizing innovation projects and their key data to understand their interrelationships, strengths, areas for improvement and potential impacts, thereby facilitating informed decision-making and strategic alignment with Organizational goals.

The Food Systems Thinking Guide for UN Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams is an interactive resource designed to support food systems transformation as a contribution to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It emphasizes a systems approach, fostering collaboration across diverse stakeholders – including governments, civil society, and private sectors – to address interconnected challenges like food security, environmental sustainability, and social equity.

Advances in digital technologies are transforming every sector of the economy including agriculture and food systems. Digital technologies offer great potential to enhance resilience, efficiency and greening of agrifood systems, from production, processing, logistics, retail and trade to support services and finance. This study reviews the current state of digital technologies in agriculture in Türkiye. Following a brief review of key trends and challenges in the agriculture sector, the study describes the ecosystem for digital transformation and the current technology supplier landscape.