IFPRI Insights: July 2021

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July 12, 2021

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IFPRI at the UN Food Systems Summit: As activities leading up to the Food Systems Summit ramp up, we continue to be heavily involved and have some exciting updates!

With thirteen blog posts thus far, our UNFSS blog series has covered topics ranging from e-commerce, water security, and financing transformation, to gender equality, small farms, and more.
IFPRI researchers have also authored and co-authored seven Scientific Group briefs, which have helped to set the agenda for the Summit.
Jemimah Njuki, IFPRI’s Director for Africa and Lead of the Summit’s Gender Lever of Change, spoke on Episode Four of the UNFSS “Laying Down Tracks” Podcast about equitable livelihoods, gender equality, and aquatic foods.
Last week we co-sponsored five side events for the UNFSS Science Days, featuring discussions on urban food systems, reforming agricultural policies, women’s empowerment, groundwater and food security, and the promise of the commons.

You can click here to stay up to date with IFPRI and UN Food Systems Summit 2021!

Leading the Way: A study by Bjorn Van Campenhout, Bart Minten, and Johan Swinnen analyzed Uganda’s dairy value chain, noting its rapid transformation and identifying key areas of innovation through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). They highlight the importance of milk collection centers for providing services that benefit the value chain as a whole. (Read Article)

A Balancing Act: Using spatially integrated modeling and optimization, Man Li, Zhe Guo, and Wei Zhang explored the economic-environmental impacts of factoring in crop-specific, seasonal, and spatial variations in crop responses to nitrogen fertilizers in Bangladesh. This approach could help with balancing the concerns of food security and environmental sustainability with regards to crop production. (Read Article)

The First 1000 Days: Child linear growth during and beyond the first 1000 days of life is associated with better intellectual functioning and mental health in early school-age children, according to research in Vietnam by Phuong Hong Nguyen and colleagues. (Read Article)

COVID-19 and Food Security: Nigerian households exposed to higher COVID-19 rates or mobility lockdowns experienced a significant increase in food insecurity compared to pre-pandemic levels, find Mulubrhan Amare, Kibrom Abay, and colleagues. Households relying on non-farm income, poorer households, and households in remote and conflicted-affected zones were impacted most. (Read Article)

Game-Time: Evidence from a study in Senegal by Melissa Hidrobo and colleagues shows that spouses who are more efficient in public goods lab games have smaller gender gaps in milk production (which indicates higher efficiency), but report less collaborative decision-making. This suggests that collaborative decision-making is not necessary for efficiency. (Read Article)

>> Read More Research

The Cost of Offsetting Climate-Induced Hunger: A new IFPRI Food Policy Report by Timothy Sulser and colleagues assesses the costs of climate change adaptation across a range of climate scenarios and agrifood system investments, providing crucial insights for international research and development investment decisions during the next thirty years. The authors project that climate change will push an additional 78 million people into chronic hunger by 2050, but this suffering could be avoided through increased investments in agriculture, water, and infrastructure. (Read Report)

Food Prices on the Rise: The current trend of rising international food prices is a concern but there’s no reason for panic yet, according to our recent blog. A bigger concern, researchers say, is the sharp rise in domestic food prices in low-income countries over the past year. Authors discuss the factors at play and look ahead at how these trends may develop. (Read Blog)

Fighting Food Waste: About 30% of all global food is either lost or wasted. A blog by Swati Malhotra and Rob Vos, based on Vos and colleagues’ special issue of Food Policy, outlines five major policy challenges that stand in the way of progress on this substantial global problem. (Read Blog)

9 More Harvests: There are only nine harvests left to transform our food systems by 2030, and only three months until the United Nations Food Systems Summit! The Summit Action Track Chairs wrote a blog about making our remaining time count, underlining the importance of collective action as we enter this critical phase. (Read Blog)

Generation Restoration: With the United Nations launching its decade of Ecosystem Restoration, a blog by Jessica Wallach offers timely insights on the importance of human-centered ecological restoration that prioritizes equity, inclusion, and justice, and respects local populations and their livelihoods. (Read Blog)

>> Read More Blogs

IFPRI Recognized for Top Gender Research: IFPRI was named one of the top five most influential institutions in the field of women’s empowerment research by Preeti Priya, Anand Venkatesh, and Anshu Shukla in their recent Women’s Studies International Forum paper. IFPRI’s Agnes Quisumbing and Hazel Malapit were also recognized as some of the field’s most influential authors. (Read the Paper)

APSA Best Paper Award: The 2020 paper “Decentralization Without Democracy “ by IFPRI’s Katrina Kosec and IMF’s Tewodaj Mogues has been recognized as the winner of the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Deil S. Wright Best Paper Award. (Read the Paper or Check Out the Blog)

We have a common understanding of the root causes and we need to reverse these long-term trends to prevent worse crises in the future,” – Giampiero Muci, Senior Policy Officer, Sustainable Agri-food Systems and Fisheries, Directorate-General for International Partnerships, European Commission. (Event)

We know that feminization of agriculture is strongly affected by gender dynamics and norms starting in the household, and we know that these gender dynamics and norms change over time in very complex ways,” – Alessandra Galiè, Team Leader, Gender, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). (Event)

Sustainable productivity growth is needed to feed the growing population without degrading the environment,” – Jonathan Brooks, Head of Agricultural and Resource Policies Division, Trade and Agriculture Directorate, OECD. (Event)

[During the pandemic] we saw the innovation capacity of the informal sector, which has continued to deliver not only food but also income and employment,” – Simon Heck, RTB’s Flagship Project 4 Leader, Program Leader, CGIAR International Potato Center. (Event)

“China’s import appetite expected to relieve U.S. farmers of trade war hit”: Financial Times (UK) published an article stating that China’s agricultural imports are expected to further support U.S. farmers who have had to survive on governmental assistance due to the U.S.-China trade war and the pandemic. IFPRI’s Joseph Glauber was quoted: “I don’t think this is a temporary phenomenon. I think China will continue to be a very strong importer.”

“Agricultural loans should be made easier and more affordable to farmers”: An article in Daily Asian Age explored how Bangladeshi farmers are obtaining loans, citing an interesting IFPRI study which found that they typically borrow more than 81% of loans from various private sources, including NGOs, relatives, private banks, and moneylenders, and pay high interest rates.

Researchers warn of hunger-induced high mortality in Africa: A new IFPRI, USDA-ARS, and RTI study was the basis of a recent Guardian Nigeria article on hunger and malnutrition causing premature mortality in Africa. IFPRI’s Timothy Sulser said, “Improvements in food systems can significantly decrease hunger, but our projections show that population growth will outpace those improvements at current investment levels, especially in Africa south of the Sahara.”