Although Malawi has an extensive history of fish farming spanning a century, the nation’s smallholder aquaculture sector has yet to realize its full potential. Building the sector’s capacity can offer a sustained fish supply to improve food and nutrition security – a critical achievement for a nation vulnerable to food scarcity. While Malawi has historically been more reliant on capture
BY YING VISSER AND MARIËLLE KARSSENBERG IFPRI’s recently-released 2021 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR) is published at a time when the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to grow. With the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit set for September, the global policy focus is on transforming food systems after COVID-19. An April 15 virtual event organized by IFPRI, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Netherlands
Participatory plant breeding is not new in Rwanda. Its history can be traced between 1988 to 1990 when local experts drawn from the pool of older women carried out the process (Sperling 1992; Sperling et al. 1993). On-farm results demonstrated farmers’ ability to select the best cultivars for their home plots. Between 1990 to 1993, women experts were selected to represent
Good progress has been made in the first 12 months of an innovative project linking The UWA Institute of Agriculture researchers and east African partners to breed new, fast-cooking common bean (Phaseolus spp) varieties biofortified with iron and zinc. This Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)-funded project is a partnership between east African bean breeding programs and supported on the
Did you know that almost 80 percent of Benin’s 11.2 million people earn a living from agriculture, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) states? Despite being a subsistence sector, agriculture contributes about 34 percent to this west African nation’s Gross Domestic Product. It is for the above reasons that the University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC) and the Laboratory of Applied
Aquatic foods are key to transforming global food systems in support of sustainable and healthy diets, said panelists at the launch of a UN Nutrition discussion paper. The publication, The role of aquatic foods in sustainable healthy diets, is UN Nutrition’s first discussion paper on aquatic foods. Co-authored by 2021 World Food Prize Laureate and WorldFish Global Lead for Nutrition
While the movement to transform food systems is gaining momentum, the avenues for doing so remain poorly explored. The past has the potential to inform future actions and outcomes –researching historical large-scale dietary shifts can illuminate the pathways that facilitate dietary change. By exploring the drivers of past change in food production and consumption, researchers can promote transitions in food
Action for Animal Health is a new coalition that aims to secure greater support for animal health systems. The International Livestock Research Institute is a member of the coalition and a signatory of its call to action for governments and international agencies to increase investment in animal health to protect animals, people and the environment. The Action for Animal Health