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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You is a Senior Research Fellow and theme leader in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on climate resilience, spatial data and analytics, agroecosystems, and agricultural science policy. Gridded crop production data of the world (SPAM) and the agricultural technology evaluation model (DREAM) are among his research contributions. 

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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Natural Resources and Resilience

Ryan Nehring

Associate Research Fellow

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Bio

Ryan Nehring is an Associate Research Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit whose research focuses on the political economy of natural resource policy, agricultural research institutions, and food systems. He has worked as a researcher in sustainable development for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)–International Policy Centre (Brasília, Brazil) and has been a consultant on projects related to food systems and rural poverty for numerous UN agencies.

Before joining IFPRI, Ryan was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. He holds an MA in international development studies from St. Mary’s University, Canada, and an MS and PhD in development sociology from Cornell University.

Languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish

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Publications

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Journal Article

The technopolitics of agronomic knowledge and tropical(izing) vegetables in Brazil

2024Nehring, Ryan
Details

The technopolitics of agronomic knowledge and tropical(izing) vegetables in Brazil

This article critically analyzes the social and political factors behind the advancement of technoscientific development in modern Brazilian agriculture. In the second half of the 20th century, Brazil underwent a rapid industrialization in the agricultural sector by more than doubling productivity in key global commodities and a widespread migration of people from rural to urban areas. Most observers point to the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) as the technological engine that drove the industrialization of Brazilian agriculture. Existing approaches to analyze technoscientific development tend to overlook the role of the environment and individual scientists in enacting change. I argue that, especially in the case of agriculture, technoscientific development hinges on the extent to which the environment is disregarded or embraced by those who have the institutional support and capacity to innovate. To support my argument, I draw on two contrasting cases of crop development spearheaded by Embrapa scientists: the tropicalization of the carrot and participatory research on non-conventional vegetables. Through those two cases, the article demonstrates how the general and specific, the transnational and local, and the industrial and agroecological are all key contrasting factors for understanding technoscientific development in agriculture. This research is based on extensive interviews and participant observation at Embrapa’s vegetable research center near Brasilia, Brazil.

Year published

2024

Authors

Nehring, Ryan

Citation

Nehring, Ryan. 2024. The technopolitics of agronomic knowledge and tropical(izing) vegetables in Brazil. Environmental Science and Policy 162(December 2024): 103911. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103911

Country/Region

Brazil

Keywords

Americas; South America; Agricultural Research; Carrots; Food Systems; Politics; Technology; Tropical Zones; Vegetables

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103911 Source record

Project

Agroecology

Record type

Journal Article

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Journal Article

The political economy of agroecological transitions: Key analytical dimensions

2024McKay, Ben M.; Nehring, Ryan; Catacora-Vargas, Georgina
Details

The political economy of agroecological transitions: Key analytical dimensions

There is a growing global interest in agroecology, yet agroecological transitions remain fraught with challenges. These include the need to reconfigure the productive and reproductive agrarian relations of unsustainable food systems and to rethink how we work with ecosystems. Using a political economy approach, we propose five key interrelated dimensions for analyzing agroecological transitions: (i) social metabolism; (ii) labor dynamics; (iii) markets and resources; (iv) social organization; and (iv) policies and politics. While these dimensions are often analyzed separately and to varying degrees, we argue that together they contribute to a comprehensive analysis of the political economy of agroecological transitions.

Year published

2024

Authors

McKay, Ben M.; Nehring, Ryan; Catacora-Vargas, Georgina

Citation

McKay, Ben M.; Nehring, Ryan; and Catacora-Vargas, Georgina. The political economy of agroecological transitions: Key analytical dimensions. Journal of Peasant Studies. Article in press. First published online October 8, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2024.2399138

Keywords

Agroecology; Food Systems; Markets; Politics

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2024.2399138 Source record

Project

Agroecology

Record type

Journal Article

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Opinion Piece

The history of crop science and the future of food

2024Curry, Helen Anne; Nehring, Ryan
Details

The history of crop science and the future of food

Historical memory is often short, and perhaps nowhere more so than in scientific research. As scientists chase new insights and novel tools, they are rarely rewarded for possessing deep knowledge of their disciplines’ past trajectories. Textbook sidebars spotlight singular individuals or celebrated experiments, and institutional accounts highlight founders and funders. Such highlights introduce a tiny—and unrepresentative—fraction of scientific work. Yet, the possibilities and pitfalls of today’s research are conditioned by the past.

Year published

2024

Authors

Curry, Helen Anne; Nehring, Ryan

Citation

Curry, Helen Anne; and Nehring, Ryan. 2024. The history of crop science and the future of food. Plants, People, Planet 6(5): 995-999. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10552

Keywords

Crops; Food Systems; History; Scientists

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10552 Source record

Record type

Opinion Piece

Events

IFPRI @ Adaptation Futures 2023
IFPRI at External Event

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October 2 to 6, 2023

IFPRI @ Adaptation Futures 2023

Event: October 2, 2023 – 9:00 AM to October 6, 2023 – 6:00 PM EDT. IFPRI is participating in Adaptation Futures 2023 conference. The AF2023 Conference seeks to learn from Indigenous, local knowledge and voices in climate change adaptation research, policies, practices, and actions around the world.

Tropentag 2023
IFPRI at External Event

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September 20 to 22, 2023

Tropentag 2023

Event: September 20, 2023 – 8:30 AM to September 22, 2023 – 6:10 PM CEST. IFPRI is participating and will be featured in this years’ annual interdisciplinary conference on research in tropical and subtropical agriculture, natural resource management and rural development (TROPENTAG).