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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.

researcher spotlight

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You is a Senior Research Fellow and theme leader in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on climate resilience, spatial data and analytics, agroecosystems, and agricultural science policy. Gridded crop production data of the world (SPAM) and the agricultural technology evaluation model (DREAM) are among his research contributions. 

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

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Natural Resources and Resilience

Wei Zhang

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Wei Zhang is a Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead on Ecosystem Health and Biodiversity in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). She is the co-lead of the CGIAR Research Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems (Mitigate+) and leader of Work Package on Living Labs for People (2022-2024). Wei conducts policy-relevant research on the intersection between agriculture, development, nature/environment, and climate change. Her research interests include the economics and behavior of ecosystem service management and biodiversity conservation, natural resource governance, nature-based/nature-positive solutions, participatory action research, and behavioral experiments (games) for experiential learning, with gender and climate change as cross-cutting issues. Wei has extensive experience leading and implementing multidisciplinary research projects in Africa, South Asia, East and Southeastern Asia, and Latin America, and supporting national partners in capacity strengthening. She has also contributed to global research initiatives, such as TEEB for Agriculture and Food, and working groups, such as SESYNC and SNAPP.

Prior to joining IFPRI, Wei worked in the Environment Department, the World Bank, on payment for environmental services. Wei earned a PhD in Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University with a specialization in Environmental and Resource Economics. She has an MA in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont and a BA in International Economics from Renmin University of China.

Publications

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Publications

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Brief

Scaling up experiential learning for water management

2024Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Falk, Thomas; Sanil, Richu; ElDidi, Hagar; Zhang, Wei; Kosec, Katrina; Melesse, Mequanint B.; Duche, Vishwambhar
Details

Scaling up experiential learning for water management

Unsustainable water management is associated with reduced agricultural production and poverty, reduced ecosystem services and resilience, and insufficient and unreliable domestic water access. As a common pool resource with high subtractability and low excludability, water is easily depleted if no effective coordination exists among users to ensure provision and regulate withdrawals. This creates one of the greatest challenges for people living in semi-arid and arid environments. The majority of India’s population is estimated to face physical water scarcity for at least part of the year, with 600 million people living in areas of high to extreme water stress. As water management is highly complex, with many users sharing the same resource but often unknown to each other, stopping overuse is difficult, especially when it is more profitable to irrigate water-consumptive crops than water-conserving crops. Farmers, policymakers, donors, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in India have all articulated the need for more effective tools to improve water management and governance. Coordination and effective management of water resources are crucial to sustain agricultural productivity, but so far progress has been disappointing. Technical tools such as crop water budgeting can play an important role in enabling communities to manage their water resources, but unless communities have the knowledge and motivation to use these tools, their application and impacts are limited. To date, attention to the question of how knowledge about collectively available water is translated into effective management through collective action, norms and rules has been insufficient. Blueprint rules introduced in a top-down manner have not changed water users’ behavior. However, there is strong evidence that effective community rules and their enforcement can motivate such behavior. The better these rules fit the social-ecological context and internalized norms, the more effective they will be. Participatory development approaches have addressed these challenges. The key question is how to promote such coordination, rules, and behavior in a participatory way without external imposition and in a low-cost manner that allows largescale implementation.

Year published

2024

Authors

Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Falk, Thomas; Sanil, Richu; ElDidi, Hagar; Zhang, Wei; Kosec, Katrina; Melesse, Mequanint B.; Duche, Vishwambhar

Citation

Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Falk, Thomas; Sanil, Richu; ElDidi, Hagar; Zhang, Wei; Kosec, Katrina; et al. 2024. Scaling up experiential learning for water management. Scaling Up Experiential Learning Tools Project Note 2. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Agricultural Production; Sustainability; Water Governance; Water Management

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Brief

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Journal Article

Restoring functional integrity of the global production ecosystem through biological control

2024
Wyckhuys, Kris A.G.; Gu, Baogen; Fekih, Ibtissem Ben; Finger, Robert; Kenis, Mark; Lu, Yanhui; Subramanian, Sevgan; Tang, Fiona H.M.; Weber, Donald C.; Zhang, Wei
…more Hadi, Buyung A.R.
Details

Restoring functional integrity of the global production ecosystem through biological control

Human society is anchored in the global agroecosystem. For millennia, this system has provided humans with copious supplies of nutrient-rich food. Yet, through chemical intensification and simplification, vast shares of present-day farmland derive insufficient benefits from biodiversity and prove highly vulnerable to biotic stressors. Here, we argue that on-farm action centered on biological control can effectively defuse pest risk by bolstering foundational ecosystem services. By harnessing plant, animal and microbial biodiversity, biological control offers safe, efficacious and economically-sound plant health solutions and coevolved options for invasive species mitigation. In recent years, its scientific foundation has been fortified and solutions have been refined for myriad ecologically brittle systems. Yet, for biological control to be mainstreamed, it needs to be rebooted, intertwined with (on- and off-farm) agroecological tactics and refurbished – from research, policy and regulation, public-private partnerships up to modes of implementation. Misaligned incentives (for chemical pesticides) and adoption barriers further need to be removed, while its scientific underpinnings should become more interdisciplinary, policy-relevant, solution-oriented and linked with market demand. Thus, biological control could ensure human wellbeing in a nature-friendly manner and retain farmland ecological functioning under global change.

Year published

2024

Authors

Wyckhuys, Kris A.G.; Gu, Baogen; Fekih, Ibtissem Ben; Finger, Robert; Kenis, Mark; Lu, Yanhui; Subramanian, Sevgan; Tang, Fiona H.M.; Weber, Donald C.; Zhang, Wei; Hadi, Buyung A.R.

Citation

Wyckhuys, Kris A.G.; Gu, Baogen; Fekih, Ibtissem Ben; Finger, Robert; Kenis, Mark; Lu, Yanhui; Subramanian, Sevgan; et al. 2024. Restoring functional integrity of the global production ecosystem through biological control. Journal of Environmental Management 370(November 2024): 122446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122446

Keywords

Agroecosystems; Biodiversity; Biological Control; Plant Health; Resilience

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122446 Source record

Project

Nature-Positive Solutions

Record type

Journal Article

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Journal Article

Reconciling conservation and development requires enhanced integration and broader aims: A cross- continental assessment of landscape approaches

2024
Estrada Carmona, Natalia; Carmenta, Rachel; Reed, James; Betemariam, Ermias; Declerck, Fabrice; Falk, Thomas; Hart, Abigail K; Jones, Sarah K; Kleinschroth, Fritz; McCartney, Matthew
…more Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Milder, Jeff; Quintero, Marcela; Remans, Roseline; Valbuena, Diego; Willement, Louise; Zanzanaini, Camilla; Zhang, Wei
Details

Reconciling conservation and development requires enhanced integration and broader aims: A cross- continental assessment of landscape approaches

Expectations for agricultural landscapes in subtropical and tropical regions are high, aiming for conservation and development amid climate change, unfair trade, poverty, and environmental degradation. Landscape ap- proaches (LAs) are gaining momentum as means to reconcile expectations, although they face multiple chal- lenges, including unclear distinctions among LAs and stakeholder involvement. We studied 380 LAs from three continents via questionnaires with landscape managers (2012–2015 and 2021) and identified three LA types through cluster analysis: an ‘‘integrated’’ type with longer-term, multisectoral goals involving various stakeholders early in the design and two shorter-term types focused on sectoral priorities of preservation or production. Better-performing LAs are associated with longevity, inclusivity, and diversified investments across goals, notably those enabling social justice. International stakeholder analysis shows broad support for LAs but identifies gaps between support and LAs’ needs. The growing interest in LAs is promising. Yet, underpinning effective and lasting LAs that reconcile multiple expectations requires better support.

Year published

2024

Authors

Estrada Carmona, Natalia; Carmenta, Rachel; Reed, James; Betemariam, Ermias; Declerck, Fabrice; Falk, Thomas; Hart, Abigail K; Jones, Sarah K; Kleinschroth, Fritz; McCartney, Matthew; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Milder, Jeff; Quintero, Marcela; Remans, Roseline; Valbuena, Diego; Willement, Louise; Zanzanaini, Camilla; Zhang, Wei

Citation

Estrada Carmona, N.; Carmenta, R.; Reed, J.; Betemariam, E.; Declerck, F.; Falk, T.; Hart, A.K.; Jones, S.K.; Kleinschroth, F.; McCartney, M.; Meinzen-Dick, R.; Milder, J.; Quintero, M.; Remans, R.; Valbuena, D.; Willement, L.; Zanzanaini, C.; Zhang, W. (2024) Reconciling conservation and development requires enhanced integration and broader aims: A cross-continental assessment of landscape approaches. One Earth, Online first paper(2024-09-20). 014. ISSN: 2590-3330

Keywords

Diversification; Agriculture; Resilience; Landscape Approaches; Socio-ecological Systems; Sustainable Development Goals; Agricultural Landscapes; Multifunctional Landscapes; Agroecological Landscapes; Conservation; Biocultural Landscapes; Climate Change; Tropical Forests; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.08.014 Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Journal Article

Blogs

Enhancing groundwater governance through experimental games in Ghana
IFPRI Blog
 | 
August 22, 2023

Enhancing groundwater governance through experimental games in Ghana

By Emmanuel Obuobie, Claudia Ringler, Hagar El Didi, and Wei Zhang

Developing the tools of resource management.

Earth Day 2023: Empowering local communities as stewards of Earth’s freshwater resources
IFPRI Blog
 | 
April 21, 2023

Earth Day 2023: Empowering local communities as stewards of Earth’s freshwater resources

By Wei Zhang and Ruth Meinzen-Dick

Advantages of Community-Based Conservation.

A behavioral perspective on improving water governance in India
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 29, 2021

A behavioral perspective on improving water governance in India

By Thomas Falk, Dennis Schüpf, Wei Zhang, and Ilkhom Soliev

Insights into achieving sustainable irrigation.

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Events

Against the grain: Could farmers feed the world and heal the planet?
Series/Special Event

 | 

August 27, 2024, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Against the grain: Could farmers feed the world and heal the planet?

Humanity relies on agriculture to provide nourishment, yet there is an urgent need to reduce the agricultural sector’s environmental footprint. Meeting these two goals is crucial for both people and the planet to thrive. Please join us for a conversation featuring Roger Thurow, award-winning author and journalist, whose recently released book argues it is possible […]

32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

August 2 to 7, 2024

32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists

The triennial International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE-2024), centred on the theme “Transformation Towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems” is scheduled from August 2-7, 2024, in New Delhi, India. The conference offers a distinctive platform, providing a golden opportunity for the agricultural academic institutions and researchers to convene in person, exchange knowledge, and actively contribute to the […]

IFPRI @ 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28)
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

November 30 to December 12, 2023

IFPRI @ 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28)

IFPRI is pleased to participate in the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) being held in Dubai from November 30  to December 12, 2023. IFPRI’s Board of Trustees is meeting in Dubai on December 8, 2023, and a number of researchers will engage in meetings and participate in several side events, as […]

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News

November 11, 2019 | In the News

Diversification promotes sustainable development of agriculture

ScienceNet (China) reported on an international research team of more than 100 experts including IFPRI researchers who confirmed the benefits of biodiversity for agricultural development. Senior Research Fellow Wei Zhang explained that different relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services are determined by the relative importance of species & how they complement each other, the abundance […]

March 06, 2019 | In the News

Act fast to halt the declining insect numbers (SciDev)

Wei Zhang explains how and why researchers, development practitioners, and policy makers should act to stop dramatically declining insect numbers and protect natural habitats.

August 21, 2018 | In the News

Natural Enemy Insects Add Value to Green Production (China Science Daily)

China Science Daily amplified findings by IFPRI’s Research Fellow, Wei Zhang, regarding the economic benefit Ladybugs have on cotton farmers.  Zhang argued in her research paper that Ladybugs are a natural pest control, and that consistent use of pesticides undermine farmers’ profitability. 

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