News Overview

By Nina Jovanovic and Jacob Ricker-Gilbert June 18, 2025 Increasing farmer adoption of improved crop varieties is a key way to improve agricultural productivity and reduce poverty in low-income countries. Yet in these areas, smallholder farmers’ reported yields for such varieties often fall far short of researchers’ and policymakers’ expectations. What accounts for this gapbetween the high yield numbers documented in

Press Release – June 23, 2025 A new study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production presents a novel approach to sustainable agricultural intensification, with promising implications for food security and land conservation in Senegal. Conducted by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the study explores how farmers’ land-use decisions can be guided by the relative risks and returns of different

By Alan de Brauw June 26, 2025 Improving diets is a key element of food systems transformation, which in turn depends on the availability and affordability of nutritious foods. Micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play a crucial role in providing both food and employment in many low-income countries—making them a key target for food systems transformation policies. Making such

By Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla, Geeta Sethi, and Johan Swinnen June 30, 2025 Transforming food systems requires more than technological innovation and policy reforms—it calls for bold and strategic investments. This is the first post in a special blog series, Financing Food Systems Transformation, that explores the scale and scope of financing needed to support this transition. It examines current funding flows, identifies gaps, and highlights

Press Release – June 30, 2025 A new study by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) finds that if Sudan’s conflict continues through the end of 2025, the country could face catastrophic economic losses, widespread unemployment, and a dramatic rise in poverty, with women and rural populations hit hardest. Published in The Journal of Development Studies, the paper uses

By Maria DiGiovanni, James Warner, and Serge Mugabo June 30, 2025 Successes from evidence-informed investments for agriculture-led development.

By Kate Ambler, Jeffrey Bloem, Alan de Brauw, Mehrab Bakhtiar, and Eduardo Maruyama July 1, 2025 Transforming food systems requires more than technological innovation and policy reforms—it calls for bold and strategic investments. This is the second post in a special blog series, Financing Food Systems Transformation, that explores the scale and scope of financing needed to support this transition. It examines current funding flows, identifies gaps,

By Tushar Singh and Himangshu Kumar July 10, 2025 Food systems research—and more generally, policy and development research—often relies on structured surveys, administrative data, or experiments. While these approaches yield valuable quantitative insights, they tend to miss critical qualitative dimensions. One useful qualitative approach is open-ended interview questions. When such responses are collected in participants’ native languages, they can provide rich and