Increasingly, multi-stakeholder processes have been recognized as being necessary to the development of public policies seeking to promote systemic innovation in response to complex and multidimensional challenges, such as household food security, rural development, and environmental change. Saint Lucia, a small island developing state located in the Caribbean, has been grappling with a wide range of agriculture, food and nutrition security challenges with varying degrees of policy success.
This paper comparatively analyzes the structure of agricultural policy development networks that connect organizations working on agricultural development, climate change and food security in fourteen smallholder farming communities across East Africa, West Africa and South Asia.
This article presents programmatic lessons on scaling up research for development innovations that were implemented through the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF). Co-funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) and Global Affairs Canada (GAC), CIFSRF was a nine-year, two-phased program (2009–2018) that supported applied research to develop, test and scale proven food and nutrition security innovations. The outline of this paper is as follows.
Food literacy among children and youth is configured by two knowledge domains: an informal community-based knowledge, and a formal curriculum-based knowledge. This paper examines how these two domains contribute to food literacy and strengthen food security among rural youth in Nepal. In consultation with schoolteachers and local farmers, a knowledge test was developed and administered to 226 high school students. Scores were collected on agro-ecological, cultivation and consumption-related knowledge on a locally grown staple crop, as contributor to food literacy
This paper begins with a brief review of research on nutrition-sensitive value chains in developing countries. It then presents the Value Chains and Nutrition framework for intervention design that explores food supply and demand conditions across a portfolio of local value chains that are relevant for improving nutrition outcomes. The authors explore the framework in a case study on rural Malawi. Available evidence highlights the dominance of maize in diets, but also the willingness of rural households to consume other nutritious foods (e.g.
This special issue contains contributions from 42 authors representing 21 organizations and institutes around the world. Overall, the publication presents a number of innovations related to the key elements of climate risk management and resilience building in agriculture. The approaches, tools and methods are illustrated with case studies and examples from different parts of the world. While the innovations presented are not without certain limitations, any such limitations are identified and discussed, and recommendations are made for future research.
This study identified gender-based constraints affecting the production, processing and marketing of biofortified cassava in two states in Nigeria, using a mixed methods approach. The study identified major differences between the two study sites (Benue and Oyo). The scale of production of biofortified cassava is higher in Oyo state among adult men because of their active involvement and collaboration with research institutes within the state and the ease of transporting products to Lagos State for designated diverse markets.
Parasitic weeds such as Striga spp and Rhamphicarpa fistulosa in smallholder rice production systems form an increasing problem for food and income security in sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper we implement the Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Innovation Systems (RAAIS) as a diagnostic tool to identify specific and generic entry points for innovations to address parasitic weeds in rain-fed rice production in Tanzania. Data were gathered across three study sites in Tanzania where parasitic weeds are eminent (Kyela, Songea Rural and Morogoro Rural districts).
This paper assesses why participation in markets for small ruminants is relatively low in northern Ghana by analysing the technical and institutional constraints to innovation in smallholder small ruminant production and marketing in Lawra and Nadowli Districts. It is argued in this paper that for the majority of smallholders, market production, which requires high levels of external inputs or intensification of resource use, is not a viable option.
Motivated by donor interest in innovative thinking on food security, the authors conducted an interdisciplinary, triangulation analysis of four divergent conceptual frameworks, each relevant to diagnosing food insecurity in developing countries. They found notable tensions as well as synergistic interactions between agroecology, agricultural innovation systems, social–ecological systems, and political ecology. Cross-framework interactions enhance our understanding of how sectoral and macro-economic development strategies impact on livelihoods, availability, and access.