Sustainable Animal and Aquatic Foods
Overview
We will provide a way to boost access to nutritious foods while reducing emissions and supporting inclusive livelihoods. By combining diverse livestock and aquatic systems, we will create opportunities to address local challenges with integrated solutions tailored to specific contexts.
We envision to improve the lives and well-being of people in low- and middle-income countries by sustainably transforming animal and aquatic food systems, so they foster inclusive, healthy, and nutrient-dense food supply chains that are climate- and environmentally- friendly.
Our goal
Our work contributes through
Technical Report
Where we work
Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Colombia, Guatemala, Senegal, Tunisia, Cambodia, Ghana, Nigeria, Timor Leste, Zambia, Malaysia and Egypt
Challenges
Challenges we’ll address
- Animal and aquatic food systems impact and are impacted by climate change
- Limited access and affordability in animal and aquatic food value chains
- A lack of comprehensive data that constrains investment and policy decisions in value chains
- Productivity gaps and understanding what bundles of solutions work in specific contexts
- Animal disease and antimicrobial resistance because of environmental degradation
Areas of work
Productivity+
Increases the productivity, profitability, and emissions efficiency of livestock and aquatic systems by developing and scaling integrated innovations across genetics and breeding, feeds and forages, and animal/fish health.
Climate and the Environment
Builds the evidence base and tools for low-emission, climate-resilient animal and aquatic food systems, advancing emissions measurement (e.g., enteric methane monitoring), low-methane forages, climate finance mechanisms, and community-led adaptation.
One Health
Tackles shared health risks across people, animals, and ecosystems by reducing zoonotic and foodborne disease, improving food safety in informal markets, and curbing antimicrobial resistance, while operationalizing integrated One Health service delivery.
Market Systems, Policy Solutions and Scaling
Strengthens inclusive market systems through decision-support tools, institutional and behavioral models, and policy engagement that catalyze investment and scale innovations into national strategies and private-sector delivery.
Gender, Youth and Social Inclusion
Leads strategic research and coordinates integration across the other AoWs to advance gender-equitable norms, women's and youth empowerment, and inclusive access to services through tools, tested interventions, and measurable behavior change.
Data and Digital Solutions
Provides the digital backbone for the program by developing FAIR-aligned data systems, AI-enabled analytics, and scalable digital public goods (e.g., Peskas, AQUADMC, advisory apps) that translate data into decision-support across farm to national levels.
Our approach
Interlinked support across CGIAR’s portfolio
Our program will complement the Better Diets and Nutrition, Breeding for Tomorrow, Climate Action, Multifunctional Landscapes, Sustainable Farming, Policy Innovations, and Scaling for Impact programs, and the Capacity Sharing, Digital Transformation, and Gender Equality & Inclusion accelerators.
Working to share our capacity with
- national partners, government agencies, and decision-makers
- smallholder farmers and small and medium entrepreneurs
- scientists and researchers
Our expertise
- Strong ties with agricultural research institutes, governments, local universities, community-based organizations, and NGOs
- Excellent laboratory facilities embedded in different areas worldwide
- Interdisciplinary teams of biophysical and social scientists and data analysts with extensive knowledge and experience in the low- and middle-income countries
Events
News
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Growing resilience from the ground up: How improved forages are transforming upland livestock systems in Vietnam
In the steep hills of Vietnam’s Northwest Highlands, livestock are far more than animals. Cattle, buffalo, and pigs are savings accounts, sources of...
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Aquatic Foods Are Central to Nutrition, Livelihoods and Sustainable Blue Economies
As leaders gather in Kenya for the Our Ocean Conference, aquatic foods deserve a more central place in the ocean agenda.
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From Climate Risks to Community Solutions: Fisheries Communities in Kagera Co-Design Their Own Climate Adaptation Plan
"In the past, we would go fishing and return with tonnes of fish, but nowadays we go fishing and return with nothing, only shells and no fish in the...
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The Ocean Does Not Need Admiration. It Needs Action
On World Oceans Day, we are often invited to admire the ocean: its beauty, its vastness, its mystery.