Your search found 37 records
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048935)
(0.34 MB)
Sustainable agricultural development that prioritizes the needs and respects the rights of smallholder farmers is widely framed as a societal goal by both national governments and international institutions. However, in many places this remains an elusive goal, not least in sub-Saharan Africa. The past decades have seen new types of rural social movements emerge, demanding socially just and environmentally sustainable trajectories of agrarian change. But there are also places where this is seemingly not the case, Uganda being one. Based on qualitative research involving civil society organizations at the national and regional level, this paper analyzes contemporary civil society dynamics around agriculture in Uganda against a historical backdrop. Social division and civil society NGOization have contributed to unfavorable conditions for rural social movement emergence, but not irreversibly. Systematic policy advocacy engagement appears to be on the rise amongst agriculture-oriented NGOs, and while it is generally non-confrontational, contentious claims-making does happen. NGOs also aspire to facilitate farmer-led mobilization, although their logics of intervention differ and would benefit from more dialogue and theoretical grounding. For moving forward in NGOized contexts like Uganda, three points are emphasized: NGO-led and farmer-led mobilization is not a simple dichotomy; their relationship need not be antagonistic and there are several possible ways to seek synergies; and fostering capacity for farmers' contentious claims-making must involve counterhegemonic struggle. The paper ends by suggesting three areas for agri-food scholars interested in the complex interactions between NGOs and rural social movements.
2 Kafle, Kashi; Paliwal, N.; Benfica, R. 2019. Who works in agriculture?: exploring the dynamics of youth involvement in the agri-food systems of Tanzania and Malawi. Rome, Italy: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). 40p. (IFAD Research Series 36)
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049175)
(1.07 MB) (1.07 MB)
This analysis examines the dynamics of employment in agriculture and the agri-food system in Tanzania and Malawi by assessing the population age structure and movements of youth (aged 15-24) and young adults (aged 25-34) in and out of agriculture and the agri-food system. Using internationally comparable integrated household and agriculture surveys, we discover that the average age of a person who works in farming as own-farm labour is 34 years in Tanzania and 31 years in Malawi. Examination of the movements into and out of the agri-food system demonstrates a high degree of short-term stability of youth and young adult participation in farming in both countries. Specifically, 59 per cent of rural Tanzanian youth and 56 per cent of rural Malawian youth are consistently engaged in farming. Yet there is considerable mobility between different sectors of employment. More than 57 per cent of the youth cohort that was not involved in the agri-food system during the baseline entered the sector in the subsequent wave, and 12 per cent of those involved in the agri-food system during the baseline moved out of the sector in the subsequent wave. Even though the high degree of stability in farming participation is encouraging, it is likely that the poor economic prospects outside farming are what is driving strong participation in single-occupation farming. Given that increasing youth employment is a priority public policy for the Governments of Tanzania and Malawi, it is recommended that the countries attempt to diversify the rural economy by developing the many economic opportunities within the agri-food system.
3 Williams, Timothy O. 2019. Managing water for food and agricultural transformation in Africa: key issues and priorities. In Allan, T.; Bromwich, B.; Keulertz, M.; Colman, A. (Eds.). The Oxford handbook of food, water and society. New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press. pp.470-487.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: 333.91 G000 ALL Record No: H049503)
(3.24 MB)
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: 338.19 G000 CAM, e-copy SF Record No: H049449)
(0.30 MB)
5 Boughton, D.; Goeb, J.; Lambrecht, I.; Headey, D.; Takeshima, H.; Mahrt, K.; Masias, I.; Goudet, S.; Ragasa, C.; Maredia, M. K.; Minten, B.; Diao, X. 2021. Impacts of COVID-19 on agricultural production and food systems in late transforming Southeast Asia: the case of Myanmar. Agricultural Systems, 188:103026. (Online first) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2020.103026]
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050204)
(2.12 MB) (2.12 MB)
The objective of this contribution is to report the initial impacts of measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic on Myanmar's agri-food system. Myanmar is one of several late-transforming low-income countries in Southeast Asia where agriculture still plays a large role in rural livelihoods, and where food prices are a key factor affecting nutrition security for poor urban and rural households. Whereas the economic impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on tourism and manufacturing were obvious to policymakers, the impacts on the agri-food system were less evident and often more indirect. This resulted in the rural sector being allocated only a very small share of the government's initial fiscal response to mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19.
To correct this information gap, a suite of phone surveys covering a wide spectrum of actors in the agri-food system were deployed, including farm input suppliers, mechanization service providers, farmers, commodity traders, millers, food retailers and consumers. The surveys were repeated at regular intervals prior to and during the main crop production season which began shortly after nationwide COVID-19 prevention measures were implemented in April. While the results indicate considerable resilience in the agri-food system in response to the initial disruptions, persistent financial stress for a high proportion of households and agri-food system businesses indicate that the road to a full recovery will take time. The experience provides important lessons for strengthening the resilience of the agri-food system, and the livelihoods of households that depend on it.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050852)
(0.18 MB) (184 KB)
Sustainable and resilient food systems depend on sustainable and resilient water management. Resilience is characterised by overlapping decision spaces and scales and interdependencies among water users and competing sectors. Increasing water scarcity, due to climate change and other environmental and societal changes, makes putting caps on the consumption of water resources indispensable. Implementation requires an understanding of different domains, actors, and their objectives, and drivers and barriers to transformational change. We suggest a scale-specific approach, in which agricultural water use is embedded in a larger systems approach (including natural and human systems). This approach is the basis for policy coherence and the design of effective incentive schemes to change agricultural water use behaviour and, therefore, optimise the water we eat.
7 Magalhaes, M.; Ringler, C.; Verma, Shilp; Schmitter, Petra. 2021. Accelerating rural energy access for agricultural transformation: contribution of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems to transforming food, land and water systems in a climate crisis. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). 26p. (WLE Legacy Series 3) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5337/2022.202]
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050910)
(2.33 MB)
With adverse impacts of climate change growing in number and intensity, there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from food systems to net zero. This can only be achieved if rural areas in low- and middle-income countries gain access to clean energy. A review of the research and capacity building contributions of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) over the last 10 years suggests important contributions in the areas of energy policy and energy investment planning, cost and feasibility frameworks, and business models for clean energy technology uptake. WLE has also conducted successful pilot projects on solar irrigation to provide an evidence base for scaling up innovative energy initiatives. Finally, the program also considered non-agricultural uses of energy where relevant to food systems, and implemented capacity building activities.
Going forward, CGIAR has a key role to play in providing information, supporting access and piloting innovative, scalable clean energy interventions to support the achievement of multiple impacts for the poorest and most food-insecure women and men farmers and entrepreneurs.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050974)
(1.16 MB)
This paper explores outcome indicators and process principles to evaluate landscape resilience in agro-ecosystems, drawing on outcome indicator case studies of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). Four questions are addressed: (1) which outcome indicators and process principles feature most prominently in the seminal literature on resilient agro-ecological landscapes? (2) to what extent are these principles represented in CGIAR Outcome Impact Case Reports (OICRs) and selected peer-reviewed studies? (3) how does the use of process principles in the case studies compare to their occurrence in the theoretical literature? and (4) which process principles co-occur with related outcome indicators in the OICRs? The findings enable researchers and practitioners to be more specific about the outcomes and processes that drive resilience in agro-ecosystems, thereby informing adaptive program management. Seven novel research themes are proposed.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051024)
(5.99 MB) (5.99 MB)
The global goal to end hunger requires the interpretation of problems and change across multiple domains to create the scope for collaboration, learning, and impactful research. We facilitated a workshop aimed at understanding how stakeholders problematize sustainable diet transition (SDT) among a previously marginalized social group. Using the systems thinking approach, three sub-systems, namely access to dietary diversity, sustainable beneficiation of natural capital, and ‘food choice for well-being’, highlighted the main forces governing the current context, and future interventions of the project. Moreover, when viewed as co-evolving processes within the multi-level perspective, our identified microlevel leverage points—multi-faceted literacy, youth empowerment, deliberative policymaking, and promotion of sustainable diet aspirations—can be linked and developed through existing national macro-level strategies. Thus, co-designing to problematize transformational SDT, centered on an interdisciplinary outlook and informational governance, could streamline research implementation outcomes to re-structure socio-technical sectors and reconnect people to nature-based solutions. Such legitimate aspirations could be relevant in countries bearing complex socio-political legacies and bridge the local–global goals coherently. This work provides a collaborative framework required to develop impact-driven activities needed to inform evidence-based policies on sustainable diets.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051054)
(3.22 MB) (3.22 MB)
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) represents a substantial area of the terrestrial landmass encompassing several countries and ecosystems. This area is generally drier and warmer compared to the rest of the world, and has extreme resource limitations that are highly vulnerable to a changing climate, geopolitical instability and land degradation. This paper will first identify the nature of climate change in the region by analyzing a downscaled climate data and identifying the hotspots of climate change in MENA. It was found that the climate vulnerability is quite high, with the mean annual temperature increasing by as much as 4–6 degrees towards the end of the century. The nature precipitation under climate change is quite speculative, with the Maghreb region showing the highest vulnerability. Based on these results, five action points are postulated that may be implemented to rapidly progress our understanding of climate vulnerability and enhance the climate change preparedness in MENA’s agri-food sector, to take necessary actions to adapt to a changing climate with a systemic resilience perspective. These include working towards: (1) enhancing the sustainability of the rainfed-desert transitional belt (Rangelands) in the MENA; (2) enhancing the sustainability of agri-food systems in the food baskets of MENA and (3) working towards fostering a collective intelligence to support climate change research in the MENA. (4) The need for foresight advice on resilient food systems under climate change and (5) the need for transformative policies for stabilization and reconstruction under climate change.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051155)
(0.32 MB) (332 KB)
Climate change and associated extreme weather events directly impact the functioning and sustainability of food systems. The increasingly erratic onset of seasonal rainfall and prolonged heat stress during growing seasons are already causing crop losses. As of late 2021, for example, Madagascar’s three successive seasonal droughts had put 1.35 million people at risk of the world’s first climate-change-induced famine. In the United States, the number of days between billion-dollar weather-related disasters has fallen from more than 80 in the 1980s to just 18 in recent years. Without adequate preparation, these weather hazards disrupt food supply chains by interrupting production and cause problems farther along these chains by raising costs and prices of processing, storage, transport, retail, and consumption and reducing business revenues.
12 Mukherji, Aditi; Kishore, A.; Rashid, S. 2022. Regional developments: South Asia. In International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 2022 Global food policy report: climate change and food systems. Washington, DC, USA: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). pp.128-132. (Global Food Policy Report)
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051163)
(0.11 MB) (2.22 MB)
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051503)
(0.28 MB) (288 KB)
Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is widely distributed throughout the Global South. Despite urban population growth and diversifying food habits, UPA delivers an important part of urban food supply, as well as other types of services to cities, such as employment and waste reuse. Nevertheless, the extent and importance of UPA varies between different urban areas, while challenges like limited recognition, land conversion, and water pollution and competition threaten the potential of UPA to contribute to urban resilience. Key investment priorities for research and innovation for overcoming current challenges include incentivized peri-urban zoning, urban allocation of productive lands, and increasing capacities for controlled environment agriculture (CEA). Innovative repositioning of food marketing can help to strengthen supply of healthy food from UPA production, increase decent employment, and turn food markets into nutrition hubs. Priority innovations for contributing to the circular bioeconomy of cities include scaling the safe use of wastewater for irrigation through investments in the adoption of multiple risk-barrier approaches and scaling UPA-based ecosystem services for valorising solid waste and environmental management. Innovations in urban governance are required to support these processes by bringing food systems into urban planning through food mapping and the multisectoral platforms for dialogue and policy formulation across city regions and with vertical levels of government.
14 Sugden, Fraser; Dhakal, S.; Rai, J. 2022. Agrifood systems policy research: historical evolution of agrifood systems in Nepal. New Delhi, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA). 47p.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051631)
(1.94 MB)
This report explores the agrarian history of Nepal over the last 500 years, and the historical, social, and political trajectories that still shape modern agrifood systems in Nepal. The report is organised according to the main epochs in Nepal’s political-economic history. The study explores the complex layers of factors which vary across space according to contemporary and historic state formations, the local agroecology and indigenous and imported cultural-economic institutions and technologies that shape regional diversity in modes of production and food production systems across Nepal. The study is based on readily available documents including secondary literature and archival data as data sources.
15 Sarkar, Anindita; Chakraborty, Shreya; Mukherji, Aditi. 2022. Agrifood systems policy research: historical evolution of agrifood systems in Odisha, India. New Delhi, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA). 14p.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051632)
(705 KB)
The diverse political influences and agrarian histories in Odisha have played a major role in determining the heterogenous regional contexts of agricultural development in the region. Several important political-economic developments like land tenure systems, feudal and semi-feudal structures, and their alliance with colonial extraction of revenue and taxation regimes historically have determined the agrarian pathways manifested in present inequalities in access to land, resources, and capital. There is a historical path dependence in agrarian systems, agrarian relations and the policies that aim to bring about changes. Thus “solutions” to a sustainable and resilient agrifood system needs to be contextualized within the historical and socio-political context. This research brief discusses the major drivers of food production and food security in Odisha charting the evolution of agrifood systems in the state. It traces the major political, economic, and social developments in Odisha that have taken place since 1850 that have determined the agrarian relations and agrifood outcomes for the region. It also discusses the major climatic events, particularly droughts and floods, that have influenced food production and livelihoods of rural communities. It brings out the temporal continuities and discontinuities in agrarian relations and technological transformations in agriculture.
16 Chakraborty, Shreya; Mukherji, Aditi. 2022. Historical evolution of the agrifood system in Nepal. Proceedings of the Workshop on Expert Multistakeholder Consultation - Historical Evolution of the Agrifood System in Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal, 11 September 2022. New Delhi, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA). 7p.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051635)
(1.25 MB)
As a part of the Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) initiative’s holistic food systems approach, IWMI led a study tracing the historical evolution of food systems in Nepal. The expert consultation aimed to solicit views on framing and situating the historical study within the current food systems-related discussions. The study is conducted by Dr. Fraser Sugden from the University of Birmingham, Dr. Suresh Dhakal and Dr. Janak Rai from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu. Stakeholders offered substantial feedback on increasing the geographical and community scope of the study, important timelines to include, and relevant issues of the local agrifood system relevant for the region.
17 Banerjee, Anurag; Chakraborty, Shreya; Mukherji, Aditi. 2022. Historical evolution of the agrifood system in Odisha, India. Proceedings of the Workshop on Expert Multistakeholder Consultation - Historical Evolution of the Agrifood System in Odisha, India, Bhubaneshwar, India, 25 November 2022. New Delhi, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA). 6p.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051636)
(939 KB)
As a part of the Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) initiative’s holistic food systems approach, IWMI led a study tracing the historical evolution of food systems in the state of Odisha, India. The expert consultation aimed to solicit views on framing and situating the historical study within the current food systems-related discussions. The study is conducted by Dr. Anindita Sarkar, Delhi University. Stakeholders offered substantial feedback on increasing the geographical and community scope of the study, important timelines to include, and relevant issues of the local agrifood system relevant for the region.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI Record No: H051770)
(5.44 MB)
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051821)
(1.69 MB) (1.69 MB)
The recent Russia–Ukraine conflict has raised significant concerns about global food security, leaving many countries with restricted access to imported staple food crops, particularly wheat and sunflower oil, sending food prices soaring with other adverse consequences in the food supply chain. This detrimental effect is particularly prominent for low-income countries relying on grain imports, with record-high food prices and inflation affecting their livelihoods. This review discusses the role of Russia and Ukraine in the global food system and the impact of the Russia–Ukraine conflict on food security. It also highlights how diversifying four areas of agrifood systems—markets, production, crops, and technology can contribute to achieving food supply chain resilience for future food security and sustainability.
20 Laborde, D.; Matchaya, Greenwell; Traore, F. 2023. Impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on African agriculture, trade, poverty, and food systems. In Odjo, S. P.; Traore, F.; Zaki, C. (Eds.). Africa agriculture trade monitor 2023. Kigali, Rwanda: AKADEMIYA2063; Washington, DC, USA: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). pp.130-158. (Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor)
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052225)
(0.55 MB) (563 KB)
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