Subscribe

Back

Who we are

With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

Erick Boy

researcher spotlight

Erick Boy

Erick Boy is the Chief Nutritionist in the HarvestPlus section of the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. As head of nutrition for the HarvestPlus Program since 2008, he has led research that has generated scientific evidence on biofortified staple crops as efficacious and effective interventions to help address iron, vitamin A, and zinc deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

Back

What we do

Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

Research topics

Projects and impact

Modeling tools

Project microsites

What’s new

Where we work

Back

Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

Subscribe

partnerships

Homepage

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Pakistan: A cost-benefit analysis of crop rotation practice in rainfed areas

2024Rana, Abdul Wajid; Gill, Sitara; Akram, Iqra
Details

Pakistan: A cost-benefit analysis of crop rotation practice in rainfed areas

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges confronting our global system today. The scientific community has clearly established that global temperatures are rising and the consequences of climate change may swiftly transition from an environmental risk to an economic threat. Agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to changes in weather and climatic condition. Over 60% of the yield variability is chalked up to to climate change; significantly affecting food production and farmer income. Changes in climate affect the onset and duration of crop growing cycle, and the extent and duration of heat and water stress impact agriculture production. Moreover, it may trigger pest and disease outbreaks causing significant production losses. Small-scale farmers in rain-fed areas of Pakistan face the severe susceptibility to the challenges brought about by climate change. This vulnerability stems from their heavy dependence on traditional farming methods and their limited ability to adapt, exacerbated by their limited access to advanced technologies and high levels of poverty. Worldwide, crop yields from rainfed farming are approximately 50 percent less than those achieved through irrigated methods. In the absence of adaptation measures to cope with climate change, a potential decline of around 50 percent in rain-fed agricultural yields could potentially occur within the next 30-35 years. Promoting climate smart agricultural practices appears to be a dependable strategy for addressing risks posed by climate change.

Year published

2024

Authors

Rana, Abdul Wajid; Gill, Sitara; Akram, Iqra

Citation

Rana, Abdul Wajid; Gill, Sitara; and Akram, Iqra. 2024. Pakistan: A cost-benefit analysis of crop rotation practice in rainfed areas. Working Paper – Climate Smart Agriculture. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139502

Country/Region

Pakistan

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Agriculture; Climate Change; Crop Rotation; Rainfed Farming; Vulnerability

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Resilience

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Pakistan: Strategy to promote climate smart agriculture practices

2024Rana, Abdul Wajid; Gill, Sitara
Details

Pakistan: Strategy to promote climate smart agriculture practices

Pakistan is a case of double injustice contributing a minuscule share of global greenhouse gases, yet it is bearing the brunt of global climate change impacts. It ranks among the top 10 countries vulnerable to climate change (Eckstein et al., 2021). The 2022 IPCC Report underlines the heightened vulnerabilities because of global warming and climate change leading to more floods. The Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 20221, Pakistan could lose more than 9 percent of its annual GDP due to climate change. The Notre Dame- Gain Matrix2 ranks Pakistan 5th most impacted country by climate change shocks and is positioned as the 36th least-prepared nation to cope with climate changes (The World Bank Group, 2021). Besides, Pakistan scores worst on the indicator of Agriculture Capacity3 at 0.939. Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate changes because of its arid to semi-arid environmental conditions (Nasim et al., 2018; Ullah et al., 2019, Ghaffar et al., 2022). Over the last two decades, the country has been facing the challenges of rising temperature, extreme heatwaves, drought, intense and erratic precipitation, water stress, glacial melting, recurring flash floods and super floods in 2010 and 2022. The combination of reduced crop yields, water scarcity, and changing agricultural practices can lead to severe food insecurity and economic challenges for marginalized communities and more importantly, for farmers. In July-August 2022, Pakistan faced unprecedented rainfall and riverine floods damaging cultivated crops, livestock and the infrastructure. Approximately 4.4 million acres of crops were damaged, and nearly 1 million animals perished. The total cost of damages and losses was estimated at $30.13 billion, with agriculture accounting for $12.9 billion (43 percent of the total) (Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2021-22).

Year published

2024

Authors

Rana, Abdul Wajid; Gill, Sitara

Citation

Rana, Abdul Wajid; and Gill, Sitara. 2024. Pakistan: Strategy to Promote Climate Smart Agriculture Practices. Country Brief. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/138510

Country/Region

Pakistan

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Agriculture; Greenhouse Gases; Climate Change; Climate-smart Agriculture

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Resilience

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Book Chapter

Building back fairer from the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

2023Arndt, Channing; Davies, Robert J.; Gabriel, Sherwin; Harris, Lawrence; Sachs, Michael
Details

Building back fairer from the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

On 27 August 2019, National Treasury released a document titled ‘Economic transformation, inclusive growth, and competitiveness: A contribution towards a growth agenda for the South African economy’. Perhaps as a response to the long title, the document became popularly known as “the 77-pager”. No document that proposes a substantial reform economic programme is universally embraced; however, the 77-pager did receive some important plaudits. For example, The Economist magazine described it as “replete with sensible ideas that could form the basis of a new ‘growth strategy’” (The Economist 2019). National Treasury (2019) estimated that the proposed reforms would, following implementation, raise potential growth by 2.3 percentage points (above the baseline) and create over 1 million additional jobs.

Year published

2023

Authors

Arndt, Channing; Davies, Robert J.; Gabriel, Sherwin; Harris, Lawrence; Sachs, Michael

Citation

Arndt, Channing; Davies, Robert J.; Gabriel, Sherwin; Harris, Lawrence; and Sachs, Michael. 2023. Building back fairer from the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. In Unlocking Growth Prospects in Post-Pandemic South Africa: A Compilation of Working Papers Looking at Ways to Restore and Accelerate Economic Growth in South Africa, eds. Christopher Loewald and Matthew Stern. Chapter 5, Pp. 132-152. https://www.resbank.co.za/content/dam/sarb/what-we-do/research/UNLOCKING%20GROWTH%20PROSPECTS%20FINAL%20050423.pdf

Country/Region

South Africa

Keywords

Africa; Southern Africa; Coronavirus; Coronavirus Disease; Coronavirinae; Covid-19; Policies; Economic Growth; Food Systems; Nutrition; Health; Urban Development

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Foresight

Record type

Book Chapter