This brief deals with the importance of power and representation within in innovation platforms. The brief is part of the series of ‘practice briefs’ intended to help guide agricultural research practitioners who seek to support and implement innovation platforms. A contribution to the CGIAR Humidtropics research program, the development of the briefs was led by the International Livestock Research Institute; they draw on experiences of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, several CGIAR centres and partner organizations.
By 2050, it is projected that nearly 70% of the global population will live in urban areas – up from 55% today. How can towns and cities be fed sustainably? And what does this urban growth mean for innovation priorities? A study of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA), commissioned by CoSAI, addressed these questions.
Water is scarce and pivotal for the Sahel, not only for increasing the productivity for millions of small-scale farmers but also for countering loss of arable land resulting from erosion and warming temperatures. A major barrier to the use of water in the Sahel is the lack of infrastructure and technologies – 45 percent of the population do not have access to water, and only 2 percent of arable land is irrigated (OECD, 2022).
A growing variety of public and private rural advisory services are available today, leading to increasingly “pluralistic service systems” (PSS), in which advisory services are provided by different actors and funded from different sources. However, these PSS and the way they operate are still poorly understood. In particular, how PSS can effectively respond to demands of heterogeneous farmers in contexts where small-scale agriculture increasingly needs to exploit value addition and adapt to market requirements.
Coffee is one of the key agricultural commodities in the Government of Uganda’s pursuance of economic growth and job creation, especially for the rapidly expanding youth population. A significant number of job opportunities exist for young people along the coffee value chain, not only in production but increasingly in processing, trade and marketing, as well as service provision.
This CCAFS Info Note presents prospects for scaling up the contribution of index insurance to smallholder adaptation to climate risk.
Esta publicación es el resumen de los resultados del proceso de sistematización participativo del proyecto ACORDAR, financiado por USAID, para las temáticas de cacao, café, frijol, hortalizas y malanga, género, municipalismo y desarrollo empresarial en Nicaragua. Cinco años de trabajo en campo, más de 52 millones de dólares invertidos, cerca de 200 organizaciones trabajando en alianza, 50 municipalidades cobijadas (un tercio de las municipalidades del País), 25 gobiernos locales que invirtieron más de 20 millones de dólares en el fortalecimiento de las cadenas de valor, 7711 familias produc
Despite efforts over recent years to improve the status of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, little change has been noted, due partially to the fact that efforts have come from individual entities, which had short-term funding or lacked the necessary expertise to scale up research outputs. Disconnect between researchers and end-users has further hindered the success of such efforts.
Face à la crise mondiale causée par la pandémie de covid-19, les pays prennent des mesures.Les rayons des supermarchés restent approvisionnés pour le moment. Mais une crise pandémique prolongée pourrait rapidement mettre à mal les chaînes d’approvisionnement alimentaire, qui sont des réseaux complexes d’interactions entre exploitants, intrants agricoles, usines de transformation, services d’expédition, détaillants et bien d’autres.
In order to realize the potential of agricultural innovation in family farming, national priorities of sustainably increasing food production and productivity, and reducing hunger and poverty, require rural knowledge institutions to be stronger and communication processes to be improved. This brief synthesizes the focus of FAO’s research and extension branch on transforming agricultural innovation systems of member countries.