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IFPRI in 2023: Food systems are crucially important for providing food and nutrition to the world’s growing population and for supporting livelihoods, primarily in low- and middle-income countries. But to end hunger and malnutrition, food systems must transform to address deteriorating food security and malnutrition trends and better cope with climate change, while also becoming more sustainable. IFPRI’s commitment to providing research and data for better nutrition and livelihoods means that we work across food systems from farms to markets to consumers. In 2023, IFPRI continued to contribute policy-relevant research to address food system shocks and challenges, including finding ways to build greater resilience into food systems to make them less vulnerable to future shocks, and to foster inclusion and equity for a better future for all.
(Explore our interactive Year in Review)
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 From Commitments to Impact: Analyzing the global commitments toward promoting food security and healthy diets
Special Event | February 6, 2024, 9:00AM to 10:30AM EST
Introducing the new Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)
Policy Seminar | February 22, 2024, 9:00AM to 10:30AM EST
Reforming Agricultural Policies and Farm Support to Advance Sustainable Food System Transformation
CGIAR Seminar Series | February 29, 2024, 9:00AM to 10:45AM EST
Please check our Events page for most recent updates.
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Dairy development and nutrition in the developing world – Dairy products have an exceptionally rich nutrient profile and have long been promoted in high income countries to redress child malnutrition. But given all this potential, and the high burden of undernutrition in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), why isn’t dairy consumption more actively promoted in the developing world?
A new special issue of the Food Policy journal, edited by Derek Headey, Harold Alderman, and John Hoddinott, examines evidence on the importance of dairy production and consumption for improving nutrition among young children in LMICs as well as the supply- and demand-side challenges that prevent LMICs from expanding dairy consumption. (Read the special issue)
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Risks from solar-powered groundwater irrigation: There is optimism about solar-powered irrigation helping LMICs meet their climate change mitigation obligations, but insights from behavioral sciences, and early evidence, suggest that such emissions reductions are complex to calculate and likely lower than assumed. Claudia Ringler, Avinash Kishore, et al. find that emissions reductions may not meet expectations, and groundwater use will likely increase. (Read article in Science)
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The impacts of cash transfers on mental health and investments: Melissa Hidrobo, Naureen Karachiwalla, and Shalini Roy explored the randomized roll-out of Mali’s national cash transfer program to estimate its impact on measures of psychological and emotional well-being, time preferences, and cognitive function among households’ primary decision-makers. The study found that receiving transfers reduced decision-makers’ self-reported stress and worry, as well as improving their self-esteem. (Read article in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization)
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Finance needs of the agricultural midstream: Agricultural value chains are changing rapidly, with increasing focus on midstream activities occurring post-production and prior to final sale. Kate Ambler, Alan de Brauw, et al. discuss the financial needs of midstream actors in agricultural value chains, emphasizing differences across midstream activities and highlighting how value chain characteristics can influence both financial needs and potential remedies. (Read article in Food Policy)
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Reduce, reuse, redeem: Understanding how consumers make recycling decisions is crucial in crafting sustainable recycling policies. This study, co-authored by Carly Trachtman, is the first to estimate consumer preferences and willingness to pay for various beverage container recycling methods since California’s 1987 “Bottle Bill” established a deposit-refund system to induce consumers to recycle beverage containers. (Read article in Ecological Economics)
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Improving agricultural field parcel delineation: Accurate spatial information for agricultural field parcels is important for agricultural production management and understanding agro-industrialization and intensification. However, traditional remote sensing methods struggle to identify heterogeneous field parcels, particularly in regions dominated by smallholder farming systems. Liangzhi You et al. propose a Dual branch Spatiotemporal Fusion Network (DSTFNet) to delineate agricultural field parcels over various landscapes. (Read article in the Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing)
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On January 8, 2024, IFPRI, ILRI, Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), and the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies co-organized a hybrid book launch of the new IFPRI book Food Systems Transformation in Kenya: Lessons from the Past and Policy Options for the Future. (Watch Recording)
(Read Press Release)
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Sustainable agriculture, resilient food systems, and climate action: A post-COP28 look at policy imperatives at international and country levels: IFPRI participated in COP28 in late 2023 as part of a wider CGIAR delegation. Following on CGIAR’s five key takeaways from the global climate conference, this blog post—written by IFPRI Communications and Public Affairs Director Charlotte Hebebrand with input from IFPRI research units—reflects on the significance of the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action through a policy lens. (Read Blog)
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Impacts of Red Sea shipping disruptions on global food security: Joseph Glauber and Abdullah Al Mamun examine the impacts of the disruption of Red Sea shipping on key exporters and on food commodity markets and consumers in East Africa and Asia. (Read Blog)
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Can a light-touch graduation model address persistent poverty? Evidence from Ethiopia: Jessica Leight explores the effectiveness of a new, light-touch graduation model implemented at scale in rural Ethiopia, finding it has modest but meaningful impacts on asset accumulation and savings. (Read Blog)
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The impact of marriage timing on women’s agency: Evidence from rural Bangladesh: Salauddin Tauseef and Farha Deba Sufian look at the impacts of early marriage in Bangladesh, examining how the age at which women marry affects their standing in the husband’s family, subsequently influencing their empowerment—finding negative impacts of early marriage across a range of measures. (Read Blog)
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Grappling with compounding crises in domestic fertilizer markets in Africa: Global fertilizer markets experienced significant price surges beginning in 2020 and through 2022 due to a combination of factors. Insufficient availability and affordability of fertilizers are likely to have affected yield and profitability of smallholder production systems. Kibrom A. Abay, Thomas W. Assefa, Guush Berhane, Gashaw T. Abate, and Charlotte Hebebrand shed light on these issues, with a focus on Ethiopia. (Read Blog)
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Gender bias in bargaining: Lessons from haggling over the price of seed in rural Uganda: Bjorn Van Campenhout and Leocardia Nabwire unravel the complexities of negotiations between sellers and buyers in agro-input shops, and in particular on how the gender of the seller shapes the bargaining process and outcomes—finding that women face a distinct negotiating disadvantage. (Read Blog)
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Expanding underutilized crops in Asia: The promise of millets for improving nutrition and sustainability
Micronutrient malnutrition from iron and zinc deficiencies is a serious public health concern in developing countries. Pearl millet, in particular, is nutritionally superior in many ways and thus has the potential to mitigate malnutrition and hidden hunger. In general, millets are a good source of energy, carbohydrates, crude fibers, soluble and insoluble fat, proteins, dietary fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids and fat. Compared to other cereals, they exhibit better fat digestibility and contain more essential amino acids.
To learn more, read our recent issue post by Suresh Babu, Nandita Srivastava, Valeria Piñeiro, and Brian McNamara focusing on the promise of a key group of underutilized crops—millets—as an alternative to Asia’s enormous rice and wheat farming systems. (Read blog)
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El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of maize—its staple food—may fall by 22.5% this year: The Conversation Africa published an article by IFPRI’s Joachim De Weerdt, Channing Arndt, James Thurlow, Jan Duchoslav, Joseph Glauber, Liangzhi You, and Weston Anderson (U. of Maryland) looking at possible weather pattern changes driven by El Niño and their impact on maize production in Malawi, and proposing some urgent steps Malawi’s farmers and the government should take.
India’s food-security problem is the world’s, too: Wall Street Journal cites IFPRI research in an article on climate change and government price control in India and their impact on food security. The article says that India’s export restrictions on rice, wheat, and sugar have global repercussions, referencing IFPRI statistics that Thai rice prices had risen 14% and Viet Nam rice prices had risen 22% from July levels by October.
Red Sea attacks reverberate in food and ag trade: Successful Farming quoted a recent IFPRI blog post by Joseph Glauber and Abdullah Mamun. The article discusses how the Red Sea shipping crisis is disrupting grain shipments from Europe, Ukraine, and Russia, with the potential to drive up food costs in import-dependent countries. “Trade disruptions are most likely to impact the countries in East Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia,” the article said, quoting the blog. (This blog was also quoted in Ag Web)
Winners in $1 million food innovation challenge are revealed: Ag Daily recognized IFPRI and HarvestPlus as the recent winners of the Seeding The Future Grand Prize. This prize is awarded annually to innovations that can transform food systems to be more equitable and lead to safe, nutritious, and trusted food using sustainable practices. The prize was awarded to IFPRI and HarvestPlus for their development of nutrient-dense porridges for use in school feeding programs in Zambia.
Aflasafe—A remedy for aflatoxin contamination: Daily Monitor (Uganda) referenced IFPRI research in a recent article on the benefits of Aflasafe application to prevent aflatoxin contamination in maize and related health risks. The article cited research conducted by IFPRI that stated that 3,200 liver cancers per year are attributable to aflatoxin exposure.
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IFPRI, with African partners, played a pivotal role in establishing three programs to support the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and inform agricultural policies throughout the continent. In 2020, the programs migrated to African leadership under the newly established AKADEMIYA2063, with continued partnership with IFPRI.
AKADEMIYA2063 has successfully localized the programs through continuity and expansion of its activities, new and innovative initiatives, a responsive organizational strategy and governance structure, and expansion of its funding resources. AKADEMIYA2063 has expanded local analytical capacities in Africa and has significantly grown its portfolio of formal strategic partnerships.
To learn more, read a new interactive story in our “Making a Difference” series.
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Request for Proposals: The CGIAR Gender, Climate Change, and Nutrition Integration Initiative (GCAN) managed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) from local partners in Kenya to lead policy engagement and capacity strengthening activities on the integration of gender and nutrition in climate change policies and action with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Deadline for applications: February 15, 2024.
(Link to the call) (More information on GCAN)
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