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Global Agricultural Subsidies and Greenhouse Gases: Agricultural production receives around US$600 billion per year worldwide in government support. Up until now, the impact of this support on the sector’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has not been determined.
According to new research by IFPRI’s David Laborde, Abdullah Mamun, Will Martin, Valeria Piñeiro, and Rob Vos, whereas government support over the years has incentivized the development of high-emission farming systems, subsidies have been found to only induce a small amount of additional GHG emissions from agricultural production. This is partly because support is not systematically biased towards high-emission products, and partly because trade protection reduces demand for some high-emission products due to higher consumer prices.
While simply removing current government support would not lead to a significant reduction in greenhouse gases, a smart repurposing of this support could improve agriculture’s environmental sustainability and contribute to poverty reduction, food security, and better nutrition. Forthcoming work from the authors will provide a closer look at how to reorient subsidies for maximum efficiency and minimum harm. ( Check Out the Paper)
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New IFPRI Book: Subsistence farming is failing to meet the dietary requirements of all Malawians. In the new IFPRI book, “Disentangling Food Security from Subsistence Agriculture in Malawi,” Todd Benson proposes a development vision for Malawi in which everyone is food secure without having to rely on their own household harvest, and provides policy recommendations for achieving the rural economic transformation required. (Check Out the Book)
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Beyond the Farm: A new IFPRI, ICARDA, and PIM-CGIAR policy brief by Summer Allen, Girma Kassie, Fahd Majeed, and Simla Tokgoz explores policy-induced market distortions along agricultural value chains in Ethiopia and Nigeria. By using nominal rate of protection (NRP) methodology to analyze incentives along value chains, the authors share useful insights for balancing the interests of different actors. (Read Policy Brief)
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A Matter of Trust: Research by Kalle Hirvonen and colleagues finds that mistrust in local and national government is a major barrier to child vaccination progress in Africa. This evidence comes at a crucial time as the continent, and much of the world, battles COVID-19. (Read Article)
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Food System Forecast: According to a new study, chronic and hidden hunger will increase the overall years of life lost due to premature mortality and years lived with disability globally by over 30 million by 2050 (relative to 2010). Climate change is expected to exacerbate this increase by almost ten percent, but policy actions initiated now could help avert that additional burden. (Read Article)
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Smallholder Survey: Phone survey evidence from wheat and tomato farmers in India’s Haryana State shows how agricultural production and farmer livelihoods were impacted by the pandemic. Francisco Ceballos, Samyuktha Kannan, and Berber Kramer find that income disruptions vary across crops and over time, and explore how reductions in agricultural income are associated with changes in borrowing and food insecurity. (Read Article)
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Pandemic Challenges in Rural Guatemala: After COVID-19 lockdown last year, incomes fell, food insecurity doubled, and dietary diversity declined in the Western Highlands of Guatemala—possibly the country’s most vulnerable region. On the blog, Francisco Ceballos, Manuel Hernandez, and Cynthia Paz review Guatemala’s policy responses, discuss the challenges of reaching rural households, and propose a follow-up study to assess longer-term impacts and lessons. ( Read Blog)
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Achieving Zero Hunger: In order to make serious progress towards ending hunger by 2030, the UN Food Systems Summit Scientific Group is proposing a Zero Hunger Alliance and Fund. It aims to significantly increase funding to defeat hunger, and to serve as an international mechanism to assist the participating countries with their zero hunger plans. Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla, the Head of IFPRI’s LAC Program, reports. (Read Blog)
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The Future of Small Farms: With farms of less than 5 hectares producing 53% of calories eaten globally, small farms are an important force in agrifood system transformation. In their blog about a recent IFPRI-UNFSS Scientific Group brief, Xinshen Diao, Thomas Reardon, and Adam Kennedy explore the current state of small farms, innovations for their future, and policies for inclusive transformation. (Read Blog)
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COVID-19 in Myanmar: The fallout of the pandemic has hit Myanmar’s rural areas particularly hard, with people in the Central Dry Zone facing income losses, unemployment, and a falloff in remittances. Catherine Ragasa, Isabel Lambrecht, and Michael Wang assess the impacts, discuss coping mechanisms, and provide useful recommendations. (Read Blog)
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The Price of Rice: Papua New Guinea depends on imports for 90% of its rice, so the recent COVID-driven international rice price shocks could have major impacts on the country’s consumers, according to Emily Schmidt and Paul Dorosh. In their blog, they discuss findings from modelling rice supply and demand scenarios for rural and urban households in PNG during the pandemic, and suggest ways to improve food systems resilience. (Read Blog)
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Rural Populations at Risk: Jawoo Koo, Claudia Ringler, Aniruddha Ghosh, and Carlo Azzarri revisited their study on COVID-19 hotspots in 12 low and middle income countries. They highlight high levels of COVID-19 risk in rural areas, particularly for Bangladesh, Honduras, and Nepal, and explore the potential impacts of rural vulnerability on agriculture and food security. (Read Blog)
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Building Resilience: Shocks like COVID-19 require fast, agile, and well-implemented policy responses—and such shocks will likely become increasingly frequent. Drawing lessons from Chapter Two of IFPRI’s 2021 Global Food Policy Report, John McDermott, Danielle Resnick, and Nichola Naylor evaluate COVID-19 policy responses and suggest ways to build resilience ahead of future crises. (Read Blog)
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Happy Birthday CGIAR: 50 Innovations in 2021!
We continue to highlight CGIAR’s 50 years of innovations that changed the world. The current theme, “Innovations for a Brighter Future,” takes a deep dive into CGIAR innovations that have helped to create jobs, boost livelihoods, and advance goals to end poverty for good.
Cash transfer programs are an increasingly popular form of social protection and, since the 1990s, work at IFPRI has set the evidence base for cash transfers as an effective form of social policy against poverty! Our researchers have even shown the effectiveness of these programs in other areas, such as improving education and child nutrition, and sustainably reducing intimate partner violence. ( Learn About This Innovation)
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Out Now – IFPRI’s 2020 Annual Report: Despite all the challenges of the pandemic, IFPRI was able to continue great research work around the world in 2020. With researchers in over 70 countries producing 410 peer-reviewed publications, our Annual Report is full of highlights from a turbulent but productive year. ( Read the Report)
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Special Issue of Agricultural Economics: IFPRI’s Director General Johan Swinnen and MTID Director Rob Vos have edited a special issue of the Journal of Agricultural Economics: “COVID-19 Impacts on Global Food Systems and Household Welfare.” Dozens of authors from IFPRI and other organizations offer key insights on topics including poverty, food security, nutrition, food prices, and more, based on simulation models, value chain analyses, survey evidence, and other data from a host of new studies. ( Read Introduction and Check Out the Special Issue Papers)
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New Food Systems Summit Blog: We have a new blog series which highlights IFPRI’s role in the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 and features evidence-based analyses related to the Summit, from IFPRI and other voices. Currently, we are focusing on IFPRI’s research contributions to the recently published UNFSS Scientific Group briefs. Blog posts thus far cover gender equality, financing zero hunger, the future of small farms, and the role of the private sector in food systems transformation. ( Check Out the Series)
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 It is very necessary to develop multisector regulations so that every sector can have regulations for better responses to pandemics in the future, not just COVID-19 now,” – Phuong Vu Thi, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam. (Event)
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If we have integrated food supply chains [in Malawi], we are definite that we can deal with something catastrophic when it happens,” – Dr. Rodwell Mzonde, Director of Planning, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security for Malawi. (Event)
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COVID-19 has had a higher impact in LAC than in other regions of the world, regarding both public health but also the economy. One of the lessons learned has to do with the importance of the relationship between public health, food systems, and economic objectives,” – Valeria Piñeiro, Senior Research Coordinator, IFPRI. (Event)
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[European Commission’s] relationship with the CGIAR/IFPRI is an important component in building back better…We can’t have transformation without strong agricultural research, without strong data, without strong underpinnings to actually give us an indicator on policy advice,” – Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unit, European Union Directorate General for Planet and Prosperity, DG International Cooperation and Development. (Event)
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I am here to ensure that African countries can set goals and assemble partners, but also have a roadmap in terms of food technology…We all know that the world is a community, and Africa cannot be left behind,” – Martin Fregene, Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry, African Development Bank. (Event)
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Low trust in authorities affects vaccine uptake: evidence from 22 African countries:
The Conversation published an op-ed by IFPRI’s Kalle Hirvonen and co-authors on the importance of child vaccinations. In their research they found that, although immunization saves millions of lives each year, progress in vaccine coverage remains highly uneven, both between and within countries. Despite considerable progress over the past two decades, the situation is particularly worrying in Africa.
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Hunger will cause an increase in mortality and disability in 2050, according to a study:
A recent Notimerica article reported on a new study by IFPRI, USDA-ARS, and RTI that projects that chronic and hidden hunger globally will cause an increase in mortality and disability by 2050, and will be exacerbated by forecasted climate change impacts. IFPRI’s Tim Sulser is quoted: “Improvements in food systems can significantly decrease hunger, but our projections show that population growth will outpace those improvements at current levels of investment, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
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