The World Food Programme (WFP) has issued an urgent warning that 45 million people are teetering on the very edge of famine in 43 countries, with the slightest shock likely to push them over the precipice. Globally, up to 811 million people are chronically hungry, with 283 million acutely food insecure.
Against this backdrop, WFP is aiming to target 140 million people in 2021. This document outlines the general context and provides a snapshot of WFP’s work across several areas.
Scaling is a ubiquitous concept in agricultural research in the global south as donors require their research grantees to prove that their results can be scaled to impact upon the livelihoods of a large number of beneficiaries. Recent studies on scaling have brought critical perspectives to the rather technocratic tendencies in the agricultural innovations scaling literature.
Climate change is threatening development gains and intensifying global inequities—putting peace and important gains in human well-being at risk.
In Nepal, the Plantwise programme, in collaboration with International Development Enterprises (iDE), has established networks of locally owned plant clinics, run by community business facilitators (CBFs) trained as plant doctors, who provide practical plant health advice. This study examines how gender is integrated into this programme in three purposively selected study districts. It presents the experiences of farmers, the challenges they faced in accessing plant health services through a gender and social inclusion lens.
This publication is one of four CABI briefings on climate change. The key messages in this briefing are:
• Farmers need timely, accurate, and clear advice on how to manage pest risks
• Digitally-enabled early warning systems can help farmers adapt and minimize losses
• The complex interactions between pests, plants, and the environment under future climate change scenarios need further research to determine best practices
• Scaling digital climate information services will require a sharp focus on equity and inclusion
Providing farmers with essential agricultural information and training in the era of COVID-19 has been a challenge that has prompted a renewed interest in digital extension services. There is a distinct gender gap, however, between men’s and women’s access to, use of, and ability to benefit from information and communication technologies (ICTs).
The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification (CoSAI) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) jointly commissioned a gap study to determine how far away innovation investment is from helping agri-food systems achieve zero hunger goals and the Paris Agreement while reducing impacts on water resources in the Global South. The results show that the world can come much closer with some well-placed investments.
Considering the new opportunities that ICT innovations bring to improve performance of financial and extension services, this study looks at the potential contribution of financial and extension services to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The approach used extends the standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to include longer-term management goals and find a solution that balances the efficient use of innovation investments and the achievement of policy goals, making this approach well suited for the analysis of the SDGs.
ICARDA scientists along with CGIAR LIVESTOCK developed a cloud-based genetic database platform to boost breed improvement programs in community-based livestock breeding programs in Ethiopia.
- Lack of automated data capture systems affects timely feedback and accuracy of information for breeding decisions.
- CGIAR researchers and national research partners have adopted a digital genetic database, Dtreo, that is enhancing genetic improvement by providing timely and accurate animal ranking information to communities.
- Dtreo is a digital genetic database that is flexible and easy to use, that allows users to capture and save data offline. Data is uploaded to the database once an internet connection has been established.