IFPRI Insights: March 2020

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March 5, 2020

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The Imperative of Inclusion
IFPRI’s 2020 Global Food Policy Report explores how inclusive food systems can help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition for smallholders, women, youth, refugees and conflict-affected people, and other vulnerable populations. The report launches in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2020. (Register for Launch Event)

From Prediction to Decision: Liangzhi You and colleagues apply an interdisciplinary approach connecting climate prediction to agricultural planning to illustrate the key influence of climate on the Ethiopian economy. (Read Article)

Making the Most of Modelling: CGIAR is undertaking groundbreaking work in global modeling to conduct socioeconomic analysis and crop breeding under climate change, as described in two articles by Adam Komarek, Jawoo Koo, and colleagues. (Read Article 1; Read Article 2)

Better Together: Patrick Ward, David Spielman, Neha Kumar, Sumedha Minocha, and David Ortega find that when weather index insurance is bundled with drought-tolerant rice, the complementary tool is more valuable to farmers. (Read Article)

Nutrition Mission: Scaling up nutrition interventions among people who are already reached by health services in low income countries is an important first step for accelerating progress against malnutrition, Purnima Menon and colleagues argue. (Read Article)

>> Read More Research

Upending Spending
Purnima Menon, Phuong Hong Nguyen, and colleagues evaluated a nutrition BCC intervention in Bangladesh that did not provide any additional material inputs, such as cash or food. Their evaluation shows that the intervention motivated households to earn extra income for spending on food using strategies such as increasing mothers’ employment levels and decreasing ownership of gold jewelry. (Read Article)

A Rising Threat: China has taken unprecedented steps to try to contain coronavirus, but what about impacts on food and nutrition security? Kevin Chen, Yumei Zhang, Yue Zhan, Shenggen Fan, and Wei Si explain why there is no room for complacency. (Read Blog)

Avocado Par Avion: Mulubrhan Amare and Julia Wilson explore what is holding Kenyan avocado farmers back from participating more fully in lucrative export markets. (Read Blog)

Integral Incentives: Successfully implementing India’s newly-announced 16-point agenda for agriculture will require careful attention to identifying the right incentives for food-related actors and industries, Sunil Saroj, Devesh Roy, and Mamata Pradhan argue. (Read Blog)

Moving Toward Malabo: Tsitsi Makombe and Julie Kurtz provide a summary of the results of the African Union’s Second Biennial Review, which shows that Africa has slowed its progress in working toward achieving the Malabo Declaration goals by 2025. (Read Blog)

Zapping the Rainfall Data Gap: A new initiative will use commercial microwave links to estimate rainfall in crop production monitoring, with the aim of designing better rainfall-based index insurance in poor countries. Yanyan Liu and colleagues report. (Read Blog)

>> Read More Blogs

New Myanmar Country Program Website
IFPRI has launched a website for its newest Country Strategy Support Program–Myanmar. A joint program of IFPRI and Michigan State University, the website features the latest publications on Myanmar and current program news and events. (Visit Website)

It is a burden on countries to collect data [on micronutrient deficiency], which has implications for effective policy setting and targeting of interventions. However, this should not be a reason to not act.” – Saskia Osendarp, Executive Director, Micronutrient Forum (Event)

Technologies have a place in this battle against postharvest loss, but we recognize that there are a lot of steps between innovative technology and widespread usage; we need to identify the unseen constraints.” – Alex Winter-Nelson, Director, ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss (Event)

Ensuring sustainable growth and development of the fish sector is crucial to alleviate poverty and hunger around the world.” – Shahidur Rashid, Director, South Asia, IFPRI (Event)

We don’t expect and ask farmers to change their jobs. We want farmers to remain in their jobs and be different types of knowledge-based farmers. By focusing on that, we can turn the challenge of climate change into a real growth strategy.” – Tassos Haniotis, Director, European Commission (Event)

In the case of the European Union-Mercosur trade agreement, Mercosur’s main concern is the real possibility of access into European markets, [which has been difficult due] to the competitive differentials [brought about by] subsidies granted by the EU.” – Sofia Perini, Economist, INAI Foundation (Institute for International Agricultural Negotiations) (Event)

We [as Africans] have opportunities that other developing countries did not have. The technological environment today presents fewer barriers for us to leapfrog… If we continue to be at the cutting edge of emerging technologies like IT and biotechnology….we will continue our progress forward.” – Ousmane Badiane, Director for Africa, IFPRI (Event)

A Wealth of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health
The second episode of the podcast series Research Talks has it all. Local women leading nutrition trainings, dramatic ministerial announcements, and a whole lot of air conditioners saving the day. Tune in to Akhter Ahmed telling the story of ANGeL and how for the first time ever, research findings got translated and scaled up into a national program in Bangladesh. (Listen Here)