Global Atlas to Determine Farmers’ Potential to Grow More Food
International Collaboration Will Use IFPRI Data and Maps
The world’s population is growing, but its resources, including land and water, are finite. This means that if farmers are to feed 9 billion people by 2050—which would require them to roughly double current production—they will have to make their fields work harder without transforming forests and other precious ecosystems into additional cropland.
IFPRI Workshop Focuses on Agricultural Extension and Productivity in DRC
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been the subject of buzz in the international development community as supporters are rallying funds, intellect, and awareness around the country’s intent to experience the same positive developments in child mortality as its neighbors and to begin filling in the gaps where there is a dearth of development.
Agriculture Game Changers at Rio+20
Major Events Spotlight Agricultural Innovations
The world’s population is growing and its climate is changing—at the same time, its land and water resources are running out. Two recent events at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) put a spotlight on how agriculture can keep up with these challenges.
Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets Launches Website
The CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets, which is led by IFPRI, launched its website today. Designed to provide information about the program’s research agenda, the site also highlights related events—including the upcoming priority-setting event set to take place in New Delhi on July 3, 2012.
A Tribute to Elinor Ostrom
How the Nobel Laureate's Work on the Commons Can Contribute to Rio+20
Elinor Ostrom’s death on 12 June, just days before the Rio+20 conference, is an enormous loss. But her life’s work offers many lessons for the deliberations, decisions and path to progress at and after Rio.
Land and Rio+20
Protecting an Irreplaceable Resource
The planet’s most precious—and endangered—resources are under our feet. According to a new UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) report, soils are often overlooked in sustainable development discussions though they are essential to current and future water, energy, and food security.
Tracking the 2012 G20
Food Security Portal Homepage Feature Looks at Progress Made and Steps Forward
Food insecurity poses a daunting challenge to the G20’s goals of global economic growth and development. The impacts of high and volatile food prices in 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 remain widely visible, as seen during the 2011 Horn of Africa food crisis. Since 2001, commodity price volatility has been at its highest level in 50 years. This volatility can serve to reduce investments in agriculture, discourage long-term planning, reduce agricultural productivity, and decrease global food stocks.
Improving Agricultural Growth Critical to Global Food Security
A New International Organization Report to the G20 Highlights Need for Improving Agricultural Productivity
With a growing global population and rising incomes, global collaboration is urgently needed to ensure sustainable agricultural growth and food security. The issue of food security and development was first taken up at the 2010 G20 Summit in Seoul, with the 2011 G20 Action Plan providing further commitment to the goals of sustainable agricultural development. (For further information on the action items resulting from the 2011 G20 Summit, visit the Food Security Portal.)
Challenging the Environmental Migration Myth
Some experts believed that by 2010, up to 50 million “environmental refugees” would flee their lands due to the dramatically negative effects of climate change. Such claims, however, are not based on the actual responses of households and communities to climate change but on broad estimates of the number of people “at risk” from the changing climate.
A Green Economy and the Poor
Ensuring Food and Nutrition Security
One of the pillars of discussion at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) will be the green economy—an economy that pursues growth while promoting sustainable development through efficient use of resources, in particular natural resources such as water, arable land, and energy.
