By Proloy Deb, Virender Kumar and Amit Srivastava Rice is one of the most widely grown cereal crops in India, providing primary nutrition as well as key livelihood and economic value – $23.3 billion in 2020. It is a water-intensive crop, however, and requires 1,000–2,000 millimeters of irrigation per cropping cycle, contributing to almost 40% of freshwater withdrawals in India.
By Manohara Khadka, Sanju Koirala, Manju Adhikari and Jigyasha Rai Yangkhurung In the Western Terai region of Nepal, women farmers who irrigate their fields experience a disparity. On the one hand, women are largely responsible for the day-to-day running of irrigation systems; on the other hand, these same farmers are often excluded from planning and management decisions – particularly those
By Pabitra Gurung, Nirman Shrestha, Dinesh Bhatta, Kapil Gnawali, Bala Ram Upadhyaya and Santosh Nepal Irrigating farmland in Nepal increases crop yields, helping to reduce the country’s trade gap for agricultural commodities, and build a more food-secure economy. But despite having plenty of water available – 225 billion cubic meters each year – Nepal has a long way to go
By Manju Adhikari, Nirman Shrestha, Krishna Kumar Mishra, Sunil Kumar Singh and Santosh Nepal Nepal is increasingly dependent on food imports, which rose by about 60% between 2015 and 2020, according to foreign trade statistics. This trend threatens Nepal’s agricultural future and undermines food security – an undesirable outcome for a country already classified as having a ‘moderate level of
By Charlie Pye Smith and Joyce Maru We need to make our food systems more productive and resilient if we are to meet growing demand and cope with environmental shocks such as extreme weather events. However, agrifood policies are often poorly coordinated. To tackle this problem, One CGIAR has established an initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS). A key component
In December 2022, over 190 nations gathered in Montreal, Canada to finalize the Global Biodiversity Framework, an ambitious plan to save the Earth’s biodiversity. The United Nations Global Biodiversity Conference, or COP15, concluded with 23 ambitious targets ranging from land restoration and conservation to promoting sustainable consumption. In a world of plummeting biodiversity, this landmark agreement is a much-needed step.
Following the previous CGIAR National Policies and Strategies for Food, Land and Water Systems Transformation (NPS) Initiative[1] capacity workshops in July and September 2022, The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) held its third training workshop with the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on “Building a Nigerian Social Accounting Matrix (SAM)”, from 30th January
An insightful session on the topic “Decentralized Solutions for Water Management” was organized at India Water Week on 3rd November 2022 under CGIAR Initiative on National Policies & Strategies (NPS). The session was chaired by Dr. Anu Garg, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Water Resources, Odisha and Ms. Archana Verma, Mission Director, National Water Mission. The session emphasized the need