Food Industries for People and Planet

The International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) new research program on “Food industries for people and planet” (FIPP) will expand traditional ways of thinking about the global food system and will provide evidence-based policy assessments aimed at making agri-food industries and food systems more inclusive in terms of employment and income opportunities, more efficient in terms of meeting global food needs, and conducive to the promotion of healthy diets and environmentally sound production and distribution systems.

Building on its comparative advantages, IFPRI and its partners will focus on three interrelated areas of research (see Annex for further background to these research areas):

1. Improving agri-food market efficiency and access: This research area will focus on understanding the impact that the changing agri-food industry has on market access, food prices, technology adoption, and market interlinkages (e.g. land, credit, and output markets), as well as the role that policymakers can play in influencing these changes.

2. Innovation for inclusive agri-food value chains development: In the context of changing food markets, this research area will assess the effectiveness of policy options to create more inclusive, well-developed food value chains that can also help meet global food security and sustainability targets, as defined through the Sustainable Development Goals.

3. Incentives for safer, healthier and sustainable food: This research area will focus on understanding the risks posed by food system developments to food safety, the environment, and nutrition and on assessing the potential of innovative policy approaches to mitigate these risks and leverage change for better nutrition and health and food system sustainability.