News Overview

An international team of scientists has strengthened our understanding of how better fertilizer management could help minimize nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions while still achieving high crop yields in the new publication: Meta-analysis of yield and nitrous oxide outcomes for nitrogen management in agriculture. This research was conducted through a meta-analysis, where the results of multiple scientific studies were statistically combined.

COVID-19 has left vulnerable groups on the receiving end of social and economic impacts of the crisis, highlighting gaps in food and seed insecurity of smallholder farmers in developing countries. But impacts and mitigation strategies are not experienced evenly within communities. It will take careful analysis to make sure that seed initiatives reach the neediest during this crisis.

CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security has led an article on the importance of food systems for peace and security globally in the Lancet Planetary Health – the pre-eminent journal for inquiry into sustainable human civilisation.   Peter Läderach, Grazia Pacillo, Diego Osorio, Philip Thornton, and Dan Smith argue that international institutions and the global security establishment have been too slow to embrace and – crucially – plan for a world where conflict and migration are

Alliance researchers in Kenya’s Kisii and Meru counties look at how men and women perceive livestock, crop and forage production differently.

When used appropriately, satellite data is rapidly expanding the potential to customize insurance for smallholder farmers, potentially increasing the resilience of marginalized rural communities.

Quantifying agricultural productivity relies on measures of crop production and land area. Those measures need to be accurate, but it is often difficult to source reliable data. Inaccurate measurements affect our understanding of the relationship between agricultural productivity and land area. Researchers examined the sensitivity of empirical assessments of this relationship to alternative measurement protocols. Scientists from the International Maize

A new digital soil map for Nepal provides access to location-specific information on soil properties for any province, district, municipality or a particular area of interest. The interactive map provides information that will be useful to make new crop- and site-specific fertilizer recommendations for the country. Produced by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in collaboration with Nepal

Health has certainly been in the spotlight over the past year. And how could it not be? The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the fact that many groups across the world struggle to make ends meet with little daily income, have poorer housing conditions and education, fewer employment opportunities, and have little or no access to safe