Feeding the world’s steadily growing population while respecting the planetary boundaries will be a key challenge for humanity in the future. Prevailing production and consumption patterns are leading to a loss of natural resources and destroying ecosystems and their functions. More than 820 million people were affected by malnutrition in 2017. Climate change is exacerbating this development and pushing natural ecosystems to their limits, something that is having far-reaching consequences for the environment, the economy and humanity.
The publication is a part of the FAO work to assist the member countries in reforming their national Extension and Advisory Services (EAS). It highlights the main elements and provides concrete guidelines for the policy makers to make EAS demand-driven, i.e. responsive to diverse needs and demands of rural producers, including the most vulnerable groups, women and youth etc.
This brochure summarizes key results of the work done by the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the center (1970-2020).
Digital platform enhances genetic progress in community-based sheep and goat breeding programs in Ethiopia:
- Up-to-date information on estimated breeding values and animal rankings is directly channeled to breeder organizations and used for selection decisions.
- The digital platform motivated use of more complicated evaluation models which improve accuracy of breeding values considerably.
- When upscaled, this will help create a permanent multi-country source of information.