Agrifood value chains of small and medium-sized producers in the Near East and North Africa region have the potential to generate more value through improved access to high-value markets. Limited logistics capacity in the region, coupled with lack of access to continuous cold chain, has resulted in weak supply chain management, high level of food loss, lack of compliance with food quality and safety standards; information asymmetries; and unfair value distribution, affecting income and livelihood of small and medium-sized producers.
This paper discusses how adapting food production systems to respond to consumer demand for healthier diets is a major opportunity to mitigate and adapt to climate change in agro-rural economies. It also addresses how existing technological solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation need to create more balance between the production and consumption tiers of agrifood systems. Policy dialogue includes managing trade-offs between different sector and stakeholder interests and exploring synergies rather than focusing on exclusivity and competition.
Over the past few decades, some countries in Asia have been more successful than others in addressing poverty and malnutrition. The key question is what policies, strategies, legislation and institutional arrangements have led to a transformed agricultural sector, effectively contributing to poverty alleviation and addressing malnutrition. The great majority of national policymakers within and outside the Asia-Pacific region are keen to understand the causes of agricultural development and transformation in successful countries in Asia.
The study utilized WFP’s Consolidated Livelihood Exercise for Analyzing Resilience (CLEAR) approach which contains a baseline of major livelihood zones all over the country. CLEAR has provided the backbone to build the Philippines’ first livelihood zone maps which aim to provide information for the diversification of economic activities, aimed to ensure that its food systems are secure, peace and hunger are addressed, and the country is on a continuous path to sustainable development.
This document is accompanyng the volume Public Agricultural Research in an Era of Transformation: The Challenge of Agri-Food System Innovation (available in TAPipedia here), which provides some of the groundwork in answering the question of how the CGIAR system and other public agricultural research organisations should adapt and respond to an era of transformation framed by the SDGs.
Agriculture provides the principle source of livelihood for more than 80% of its 170 million people, and is the backbone of the Bangladesh economy. The government acknowledges this in its strategy to 2041, with investment in research and extension. CDAIS began in 2015. At the outset, however, the need to also invest in strengthening functional capacities was not recognised by those used to the ‘traditional’ technology transfer model.
The policy environment for agricultural innovation in Lao PDR has never been better. Agricultural development is high on the agenda at the most senior levels of government, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry recently published a strategy framework that lays out multiple pathways for innovation. Based on the work to date, CDAIS National Innovation Facilitators are well positioned to continue shaping the agricultural innovation process long after the project ends.
“Donor funded projects usually work separately from the government,” says Oudong Keomipheth, Deputy Director of the Planning and Cooperation Division, NAFRI and CDAIS project Country Project Manager . “But instead of setting up their own office or partnering with a national NGO, CDAIS has partnered with us, the government.”
"I have been to many meetings about policy but never a meeting like this! The CDAIS simulation reflects the way people really work. You can see the real problems" says Mr Vixay Somchalern, head of the Savannakhet Farmers Rice Association.
“Working with the CDAIS project has given us not only knowledge and skills, but also the confidence to make connections with the government and other partners.” says Mrs Dao Sansihalath, member of the Xanakham women’s pig rearing group. “What we have learnt is practical and is helping us grow our business without having to make a lot of costly mistakes.” This has been achieved through support from the CDAIS project since 2016.