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African governments, confronted with widespread malnutrition and a farm sector in decline, committed in 2003 to increasing agricultural expenditure and growth. Eighteen have since adopted a CAADP Compact, obligating them to meet the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program’s targets of expanding agricultural GDP and expenditure. Eight have so far kept a promise to spend at least 10 percent of the […]

In her book The Dragon’ Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa, author Deborah Bräutigam paints an alternative picture of China’s involvement in Africa’s development that stands in sharp contrast to the commonly-held Western belief that such investment primarily stems from China’s short-term commercial and strategic interests in the region. During a recent visit to […]

The Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security purposes to build and sustain the gathering momentum for change in U.S. food security and agricultural development policy. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is pleased to announce that the event will feature the release of the Feed the Future Guide, the implementation strategy for the U.S. […]

Is China a rogue donor? Media reports about huge aid packages, land-grabbing, support for pariah regimes, regiments of Chinese labor, and the ruthless exploitation of workers and natural resources in some of the poorest countries in the world have sparked fierce debates. China’s tradition of secrecy fuels rumors and speculation, making it difficult to gauge […]

“Eating meat is something new now,” states Joel E. Cohen during the first annual Malthus Lecture titled “Meat,” which was delivered on March 3, 2010 in Washington, DC. According to Cohen, the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Populations at The Rockefeller University and the Earth Institute of Columbia University, the meat industry as we know it […]

Biofortification could prove to be an essential strategy for combating micronutrient malnutrition in India, which has one of the world’s highest overall rates of malnutrition. Biofortification is the process of breeding new food crops with higher micronutrient content. For example, food, such as wheat and millet are both staples in the Indian diet. Developing biofortified […]

When it comes to sustainably feeding the estimated 9 billion people expected to be living on the planet by 2050, there are no simple answers. The major challenges to such a prospect are well documented: keeping pace with fast changing demand patterns from a larger and more wealthy population; producing more food on less land […]

The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) aims to increase the resilience of social and ecological systems through better water management for food production. In its second research phase, from 2009-2013, it focuses on key water-for-food development challenges within large river basins of key importance for smallholder water and food security. In this […]

Water resources continue to be a major constraint for China’s Yellow River Basin, a region enjoying rapid economic growth. Researchers have documented a link between access to water for irrigation and economic well-being: non-irrigated villages have poverty rates twice as high as irrigated villages. A number of problems, including pollution and competing water demand for […]

Threats that climate change—a phenomenon marked by global warming and an increase in extreme weather events—pose to the world’s one billion food-insecure are well documented. Desertification, rising sea levels, depleted freshwater sources, deadly natural disasters, and other disruptive events directly or indirectly caused by the changing climate inhibit smallholder farmers in developing countries from growing enough […]

Stuck at the airport and need to contact the office? In a meeting and want to quote a report? Want to check something quickly on IFPRI’s website without starting up your laptop? Now you can use your phone to access IFPRI ON THE GO. IFPRI has launched a mobile-friendly collection of services that will allow almost any mobile device […]

What type of impact can simple messages have on the behavior of the intended beneficiaries of development assistance? In order to address this question, a research team lead by IFPRI’s Markets, Trade and Institutions Division (MTID) Director Maximo Torero developed a project intended to measure the effect of using information and communications technologies (ICTs) on how […]

When the custodians of years of research team up with the most popular Internet search engine in the world, you can expect something extraordinary to happen. Imagine if you could search over 2,000 books, more than 50,000 pages from books published by the largest agricultural research consortium in the world; browse that library online and immediately […]

Dr. Ousmane Badiane, IFPRI’s Director for Africa, has received an honorary Doctorate of Science in Agriculture from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. He is being recognized both for his direct contributions to the university and for his ongoing work in furthering economic and agricultural development throughout Africa. Dr. Badiane played a central role in establishing the Comprehensive […]

The tomato industry is important to the people of Ghana but is falling short of its potential to improve their lives and livelihoods. Tomatoes are a critical part of the Ghanaian diet and could play a key role in diversifying the country’s economy. More than 90,000 farmers grow the crop and 300,000-plus people are involved in […]

On April 23, environmentalists, celebrities, and concerned citizens will meet in Washington, DC for a massive Earth Day climate rally. As they gather on the National Mall to call on the U.S. government to pass a comprehensive climate bill that lays out a national plan for mitigation and adaptation, similar rallies will unfold in capitals across the globe. A […]

In this seminar Ruth Meinzen-Dick will present on a paper written for and presented at the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development in Montpelier France (March 2010). This paper makes a case for gender equity in the agricultural R&D system. It reviews the evidence on exactly why it is important to pay attention to […]

The politics of food and agriculture are changing fast in the 21st Century. Farm lobbies remain as dominant as ever over policy within their own sectors in OECD countries, but in the realm of culture, the sophisticated elite that claim to speak for food safety, food quality, social justice, and the environment have put industrial farming squarely […]

International disciplines on agricultural domestic support have been in place since 1995 and negotiations over possible new commitments have been central to the unresolved WTO Doha Round. The influence of the existing disciplines and effects of potential new ones are difficult to assess because of the intense domestic political economy of agricultural policies, the complexity […]

Global demand for biofuels has risen sharply over the last decade, driven initially by oil price hikes and the need for greater energy security. Support measures were established in many countries in recognition of the potential of biofuel development in reducing dependence on fossil fuels, increasing farm revenues, and generating less environmental damage through lower […]