Reemerging input subsidy program (ISPs) have sparked a highly contentious debate in Africa. ISPs are government programs that provide items such as seed and fertilizer to farmers at a steep discount. Ten years ago, few countries in Africa had subsidy programs; now, African governments spend an estimated $2 billion annually—an average of 30 percent of their agriculture budgets—on these programs. But are these governments getting the biggest bang for their buck?

By 2050, global agricultural production will need to increase by at least 60 percent from 2006, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Both CGIAR and FAO are in the midst of priority setting efforts to identify how they can help accomplish this, in a global situation rife with challenges: high population growth at least until mid-century, substantially growing incomes of the poorest people (changing the pattern of food demand), and unprecedented stresses on agricultural productivity due to climate change.

Could building Somalia’s resilience to weather shocks help bring an end to its civil war?

That’s precisely what researchers Jean-Francois Maystadt, Olivier Ecker, and Athur Mabiso discuss in their paper “Extreme Weather and Civil War in Somalia: Does Drought Fuel Conflict through Livestock Price Shocks?”.

European policymakers must increase development assistance to agriculture to at least 10 percent of overseas development assistance. That was the first of several key calls to action IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan presented to policymakers from European Union countries at a keynote presentation to the Royal Dublin Society and livecast around the world last week.