2025 marks the 50th anniversary of IFPRI. As part of our ongoing virtual celebration, we continue sharing select IFPRI innovations that supported evolving food systems. Check out these latest features about the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), Groundwater Games, and the Kaleidoscope Model on LinkedIn and other platforms!
We are also showcasing the diversity of talent, geographies, and research interests across the Institute in Faces of IFPRI – a series of video interviews with our colleagues around the world. We speak with both research and non-research staff, women and men, some who have worked with IFPRI for years and some who have joined recently. Watch the latest episode featuring Agnes Quisumbing.
Stay tuned for more and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, YouTube, or X for most current updates.
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How ‘reciprocal tariffs’ harm agricultural trade
Citing the persistent U.S. trade deficit and what he considers unfair practices by other countries, President Donald Trump declared April 2 “Liberation Day” and announced a sweeping new set of supplemental tariffs on imports from nearly all major U.S. trading partners.
While the broader political and economic implications of these measures have dominated initial headlines, their impact on global agricultural trade could be equally disruptive.
In their latest issue post, Joseph Glauber, Valeria Piñeiro, and Juan Pablo Gianatiempo share that, according to their modeling analysis, the tariffs could lead to a contraction in global agricultural trade of 3.3%–4.7% and a decline in global GDP of 0.3%–0.4%, with U.S. GDP falling further, by 1%–1.2% (with higher figures reflecting a scenario where countries retaliate against the U.S.).
Depending on how, when, and where they are implemented, the tariffs are likely to lead to both direct and indirect impacts on agricultural sectors, markets, and consumers globally.
Read the blog to learn more.
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Steven Were Omamo has been appointed IFPRI’s Director for Africa. He will also continue to serve as IFPRI’s Director of the Development Strategies and Governance Unit (DSG).
Read the announcement and watch Were’s recent video where he talks about some of the key research areas DSG is focusing on.
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Wei Zhang, Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead on Ecosystem Health and Biodiversity in IFPRI’s Natural Resources and Resilience Unit, has been appointed to the prestigious ad hoc study committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). The study will focus on the status of insects in North America.
Read the announcement.
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We are thrilled to congratulate Marie Ruel and Jef Leroy on their recent awards from the American Society for Nutrition (ASN)!
Marie Ruel will be inducted into the 2025 Class of Distinguished Fellows of ASN, thus receiving the society’s highest accolade for her significant contributions and outstanding lifetime achievements in the field of nutrition. (Read more)
Jef Leroy has been named an awardee of the inaugural group of ASN Excellence in Nutrition Fellows, in recognition of his ongoing contributions to the field and sustained engagement in the nutrition community. (Read more)
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Shaping guts, growing babies: The impact of maternal balanced energy-protein (BEP) supplementation: This sub-study of the MISAME-III trial in rural Burkina Faso, with Lieven Huybregts as co-principal investigator, found that BEP supplementation during pregnancy and lactation significantly altered the maternal and infant gut microbiomes, enhancing immune-modulatory functions and carbohydrate metabolism. The findings explain one of the mechanisms by which maternal supplementation can positively influence early-life development in resource-limited settings. (Read article in Nature Communications)
Hidden gaps: Financial needs of agrifood intermediaries Kate Ambler, Jeffrey Bloem, Alan de Brauw, Julia Wagner, and co-authors examine the financial behaviors of small, often informal intermediary firms in agrifood value chains in Uganda and Bangladesh, finding that most transactions are cash-based, access to financial accounts is uneven, and business use of mobile money is limited. Despite frequent exposure to risk, few firms manage it, highlighting these intermediaries as an overlooked group for targeted financial and technological innovations to improve value chain outcomes. (Read article in Food Policy)
Assessing the overall benefits of programs enhancing human capital and equity: Poverty reduction and nutrition are often joint outcomes of public policies and programs that have education as their primary outcome. Quantification of overall benefits for these programs in a common metric is challenging. Harold Alderman, Aulo Gelli, and co-authors propose a new method to incorporate distributional benefits from poverty reduction into standard education economic evaluations, using a school feeding program in Ghana as a case study. (Read article in Economics of Education Review)
A One Health approach to address foodborne diseases: Foodborne diseases (FBDs) pose a major health and economic burden, especially in low- and middle-income countries, where they disproportionately affect young children and the poor. Praveen Kumar and Wei Zhang state that, with rising urbanization and increasingly complex food systems, addressing FBDs requires a One Health approach that integrates human, animal, and environmental health to reduce risks and support food security. (Read editorial in Annals of Global Health)
Economic and food security impacts of climate disasters and mitigation policies: Luis Escalante, Pierre Mamboundou, and co-authors assess food security impacts of climate disasters in Nigeria, revealing a 2.11% drop in real GDP and increased risk of food shortages. The analysis of mitigation measures suggests that combined strategies (like cash transfers for rural households and tax reductions for urban households) are most efficient but will require complementing these strategies with targeted investments to strengthen crop resilience and mitigate disaster impacts. (Read article in Environmental and Resource Economics)
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For more frequent updates on the latest peer-reviewed publications from IFPRI researchers, read and sign up for our weekly newsletter on LinkedIn, Weekly Reads from IFPRI.
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Building on decades of collaboration and support, this new strategy reinforces IFPRI’s commitment to advancing agrifood system transformation, food security, resilience, and economic growth across Africa.
Click here to a find brief overview and a full document.
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Peru’s rapid rise as the world’s leading blueberry exporter
From 2010–2015, Peru represented less than 2% of global blueberry production. In 2023, that figure reached 19%. The quick expansion effectively displaced some U.S. global market share; despite a large increase in its own production over the same period, the U.S. market share declined from 49% in 2010 to 27% in 2023.
Over the past 10 years, Peru has grown to become the second-largest producer of blueberries in the world after the United States and the world’s largest exporter. How did a country that produced almost no blueberries as late as 2010 manage this feat? Valeria Piñeiro, Yostina Girgies, Fernando Martín, Juan Pablo Gianatiempo, and Joseph Glauber explore Peru’s global trade success story.
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West Africa faces significant problems with various forms of malnutrition, especially among women and children. In 2017, the region had the highest rate of under-5 wasting (low weight-for-age) in Africa—8.5% compared with the continent’s mean of 7.4%. Rates of stunting (low height-for-age) were also extremely high at 31.4%. In 2017, 52% of women aged 15-46 suffered from anemia.
In response, IFPRI, with funding from the Gates Foundation, established Transform Nutrition West Africa (TNWA)—a regional knowledge platform to facilitate effective policy and action on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition in West Africa with a focus on four countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. TNWA ran from 2017 to 2021.
Tamsin Zandstra, Roos Verstraeten, Ampa Dogui Diatta, Loty Diop, and Mariama Touré explore TNWA’s research, work, and long-term impact in West Africa in the latest interactive story of our Making a Difference series.
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Devex Dish: A tale of two cities—big ideas in Nairobi, big cuts in DC Devex quoted Yanyan Liu in this article on the innovative research presented at CGIAR Science Week. Liu presented predictive models that can forecast Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) outcomes 3 to 12 months in advance.
IFPRI, SANEM, and ICAR-IARI launch CGE training program Dailyhunt wrote that IFPRI, the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research–Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI) launched a week-long introductory training program on computable general equilibrium modeling on March 17. (This was also shared by HT Syndication and The Financial Express)
Universidad Panamericana llevó a cabo el Congreso “Mujeres en la agroindustria: el papel clave de la mujer en la cadena de valor” Informativo 18 quoted Valeria Piñeiro in this article on the recent conference “Women in Agribusiness: The Key Role of Women in the Value Chain” hosted by the Universidad Panamericana. Piñeiro emphasized that the agricultural sector must produce more food more sustainably and noted that women, though a significant part of the agrifood workforce, still often earn less than men.
Des acteurs sensibilisés sur les interconnexions entre changement climatique, genre et nutrition: Agence de Presse Sénégalaise reported on the awareness-raising workshop for civil society actors on the interconnections between climate change, gender, and nutrition, co-organized by IFPRI Africa and Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rural (IPAR) under IFPRI’s GCAN Initiative, which is led in Senegal by IPAR. The article quoted IFPRI’s research fellow Wim Marivoet who noted that climate change exacerbates deficiencies in Senegal’s food systems, with women playing a key role in nutrition and well-being.
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 April 14–15, 2025, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm EDT (Africa/Nairobi)
Two Years of Crisis: Impact and Pathways to Recovery and Resilience
Supported by the CGIAR’s Science Programs on Policy Innovations and on Food Frontiers and Security
April 22, 2025, 9:30 – 11:30 am (US/Eastern)
Ending Hunger and Malnutrition: Keeping Our Eyes on the Road
Organized by IFPRI in collaboration with the World Bank
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69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69)
March 10–21, 2025
IFPRI researchers participated in sessions co-organized by Juno Evidence Alliance, the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and IFPRI
No Time to Waste: Moving from Commitments to Action on Food Loss and Waste
March 12, 2025
IFPRI Policy Seminar co-organized by the Embassy of Denmark in Washington, DC, IFPRI, and World Resources Institute (WRI)
Informing Economic Growth and Food Security Opportunities in Papua New Guinea
March 21, 2025
Seminar organized by IFPRI in collaboration with PNG’s Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council (PMNEC), Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL), Department of Health (DOH), and Department of National Planning and Monitoring (DNPM)
How Can We Improve Food Security Monitoring in Conflict-Affected Regions? Machine Learning for Spatially Granular Food Security Mapping
March 25, 2025
Webinar
Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit 2025
March 27–28, 2025
Conference
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