Equipping agricultural extension and advisory services with nutrition knowledge, competencies and skills is essential to promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture. This report presents the results of an assessment of capacity within agricultural extension and advisory services, undertaken in Telangana State, India, with the global capacity needs assessment (GCNA) methodology developed by FAO and GFRAS. The methodology is available online at https://doi.org/10.4060/cb2069en
The Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition (BFN) Project, a multi-country project, improved the evidence base by undertaking composition analysis of about 70 prioritized species, strategically targeted policy instruments with the greatest potential for diversifying public food procurement and improving diets while supporting family farming, developed regional capacities and created a network of researchers to better promote nutritious native species.
The Bureau for Food Security (BFS) of USAID commissioned five country studies examining the scaling up of agricultural innovations through commercial pathways in developing countries, to understand how the Agency – including its country missions and implementing partners (IPs) – can use donor projects to achieve greater scale and long-term commercial sustainability.
This review studied a selection of projects from the Research Into Use (RIU) Africa portfolio: the Nyagatare maize platform in Rwanda; the cowpea platform in Kano state, Nigeria; the pork platform in Malawi, the Farm Input Promotions (FIPS) Best Bet in Kenya, and the Armyworm Best Bet in Kenya and Tanzania. For each of the selected projects, assessments were made on how it changed the capacity to innovate, the household level poverty impact, whether the intervention off ered value for money, and what were the main lessons learned.
Partnership brokering is needed to work out new ways of organising food systems that treat agricultural smallholders as a resource and opportunity rather than a problem or distraction. This is because food systems are demanding innovation in the way they are organised. This is a matter of transforming stakeholders into partners in order to reconfigure food systems to operate differently, rather than just operate more efficiently. Fundamental systemic changes are needed as our contemporary food system is failing to deliver the food we increasingly demand.
The inadequate linkage of knowledge generation in agricultural research organizations with policy-making and economic activity is an important barrier to sustainable development and poverty reduction. The emerging fields of sustainability science and innovation systems studies highlight the importance of “boundary management” and “innovation brokering” in linking knowledge production, policy-making, and economic activities. This paper analyzes how the Papa Andina Partnership Program, based at the International Potato Center, functions as an innovation broker in the Andean potato sector.
Las cuatro buenas prácticas que se presentan a continuación son experiencias que fueron parte del Proyecto Innovación y Competitividad de la Papa (INCOPA) que formó parte de la Iniciativa Papa Andina, un programa regional implementado por el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) y financiado por la Agencia Suiza para el Desarrollo y la Cooperación (COSUDE).
La Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional (SAN) entendida como la disponibilidad y el acceso a los alimentos de calidad, es fundamental para el desarrollo humano; la sostenibilidad y el progreso del sector agropecuario son primordiales para mantener una oferta de alimentos en cantidad y calidad. En el departamento de Córdoba, la pobreza multidimensional es el doble para la zona rural (51.9 por ciento) con respecto a la urbana (23.3 por ciento). En ese sentido, los productores rurales dinamizan la economía local, contribuyen a generar empleos y con la SAN.
Agriculture is crucial for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), involving approximately 50% of the economically active population and contributing an estimated 25% to the gross national product. However, agricultural production has remained low due to soil degradation and pest damage in cabbage and maize (particularly due to lepidopteron pests), amongst other reasons. To help improve productivity and address food security issues, CABI has been working in DPRK since 2002 to introduce integrated pest management (IPM).
The food production and processing value chain is under pressure from all sides—increasing demand driven by a growing and more affluent population; dwindling resources caused by urbanization, land erosion, pollution and competing agriculture such as biofuels; and increasing constraints on production methods driven by consumers and regulators demanding higher quality, reduced chemical use, and most of all environmentally beneficial practices ‘from farm to fork’.