Innovation for sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) is challenging. Changing agricultural systems at scale normally means working with partners at different levels to make changes in policies and social institutions, along with technical practices. This study extracts lessons for practitioners and investors in innovation in SAI, based on concrete examples, to guide future investment.
A huge increase in investment in innovation for agricultural systems is critical to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement. Most of this increase needs to come from reorienting existing funding for innovation. However, understanding whether an investment will fully promote environmentally sustainable and equitable agri-food systems can be difficult.
Finance is a key lever for turning agriculture from a potential source of environmental harm and social inequity to a driver of conservation and social inclusiveness. Private and public sector funding for farmers to combat climate change and protect and restore nature (‘Paying for Nature’) is rapidly increasing. Yet this new funding may not reach its aims without drastically improving farm-level reward mechanisms.
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.
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is the production of plants, fish, insects or animals inside structures, such as greenhouses and buildings, in controlled conditions. In a rapidly urbanizing world, CEA can contribute to sustainable development, e.g. through reduced use of land, water and inputs. There is a need for innovation in policy, technology and business practices to scale up CEA in the Global South sustainably and equitably
In order to bring about sustainable transformation and business orientation into the Indian Agriculture sector, there have been schematic interventions to promote unique forms of social capital for farmers, called Farmer Producer organizations (FPOs). Many stakeholders, particularly NGOs, are involved in promoting and handholding these FPOs in a target-driven mode by promoting a large number of such institutions across the country.
India is witnessing dwindling gains from agriculture for the smallholder farmers because of high cost of inputs, changing climate impacting production, fluctuating market prices of outputs, and weak delivery of services at the last mile. The value share of farmers in the commodity supply chain needs to be increased to ensure that farming remains a remunerative livelihood option. There has to be a wider acceptance of the fact that the country needs partnerships among multiple players with complementary knowledge and expertise for its agricultural development.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) financed the second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project (CHARMP2), in areas where poverty is most severe among indigenous peoples in the highlands of the Cordillera Region in northern Philippines. The aim is to reduce poverty and improve the livelihoods of indigenous peoples living in farming communities in the mountainous project area. The indigenous peoples consist of many tribes whose main economic activity is agriculture.
Policy briefs are an effective tool to communicate policy messages using evidence. Thus, the Department of Agriculture Extension and Cooperatives (DAEC) and the Department of Planning and Cooperation (DOPC) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) in Lao PDR organized a multi-stakeholder policy dialogue process with support from FAO’s TAP-AIS project to spur discussion and gather evidence for this policy brief. Stakeholders involved in the policy dialogue process included representatives from the private sector, farmers organizations, academia, NGOs and the government.
If you are a research or innovation manager or a funder of innovation in the agrifood sector, in the private or public sphere, these Principles are for you. Investment in research and innovation today will shape the agrifood systems of the future. The choices that you make during an innovation process will affect the future benefits and drawbacks of the innovations you help to create: for example, what types of people gain and lose, and what the effects are on the environment. Too often, these choices are not made consciously, and important issues are overlooked until it is too late.