A 3-year field experiment was setup to address the threat of underground water depletion and sustainability of agrifood systems. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system combined with nitrogen management under conservation agriculture-based (CA) maize-wheat system (MWS) effects on crop yields, irrigation water productivity (WPi), nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and profitability. Grain yields of maize, wheat, and MWS in the SDI with 100% recommended N were significantly higher by 15.8%, 5.2% and 11.2%, respectively, than conventional furrow/flood irrigation (CT-FI) system.

Livestock are a critically important component of the food system, although the sector needs a profound transformation to ensure that it contributes to a rapid transition towards sustainable food systems. This chapter reviews and synthesises the evidence available on changes in demand for livestock products in the last few decades, and the multiple socio-economic roles that livestock have around the world. We also describe the nutrition, health, and environmental impacts for which the sector is responsible.

The highlands of North Shoa in Amhara region are dominated by cereals (wheat, barley and tef) followed by food legumes. The productivity of cereals and food legumes is low due to biotic and abiotic factors as well as insufficient input supplies like certified seed, inoculants, and other inputs. Because of diseases and insect pests, acidity and water logging problems, farmers are reducing areas of food legumes and growing more cereals leading to low crop diversity leading to reduced soil fertility, incomes, and food diversity.

The evidence base for the effectiveness of gender-transformative approaches (GTAs) in agriculture and food system interventions is small and weak, and many studies do not focus on specifically evaluating these approaches and methods.
While the very limited quantitative evidence suggests that interventions that integrate GTAs have weak or no effects on many outcomes for women’s empowerment outcomes (including gender norms), qualitative evidence shows that, in some instances, shifts in gender roles could eventually lead to change in gender norms.

Alternative protein sources for human food, as well as for terrestrial and aquatic animal feed, are increasingly commercially available. These products have considerable potential for sustainably delivering protein for food and feed and could lead to significant reductions in climate and land use impacts. Alternative protein sources include meat analogs, insects, certain woody plants, and algae including seaweed. We briefly review recent work on their nutritional, environmental, technological, and socioeconomic impacts.

Building more sustainable, equitable, and resilient food systems means rethinking how we consume, produce, and safeguard agrobiodiversity that can benefit the planet and secure access to nutritious food for all. This was the purpose of the 2021 Second International Agrobiodiversity Congress, convening scientists, Indigenous Peoples, entrepreneurs, and policymakers to share and advance research, nature-positive solutions, and policies.

The Greater Food approach implies a higher level of food security and puts forward higher requirements for agri-food system transformation in China.Meanwhile, the agri-food system has great potential for carbon sequestration and GHG emissions reduction, which can play an important role in achieving the goal of carbon neutrality.This paper aims to discuss how to achieve carbon neutrality in Chinese agri-food system under the Greater Food approach and further put forward the pathways of a win-win strategy of food security and a low-carbon agri-food system.Starting from the relation between th

The current structure of the global food system is increasingly recognized as unsustainable. In addition to the environmental impacts of agricultural production, unequal patterns of food access and availability are contributing to non-communicable diseases in middle- and high-income countries and inadequate caloric intake and dietary diversity among the world’s poorest. While the need to transform food systems is widely accepted, the policy pathways for achieving such a vision often are highly contested, and the enabling conditions for implementation are frequently absent.

Kenya grapples with climate change challenges, experiencing erratic weather patterns, prolonged droughts, and floods that significantly limit agricultural productivity and natural resources availability. This not only exacerbates food insecurity but also heightens the potential for conflicts. The Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), especially in northern counties like Turkana, are particularly vulnerable, experiencing a surge in climate-induced food shortages compounded by escalating conflict risks.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking fears of a global food crisis, IFPRI responded rapidly to the need for information and policy advice to address the crisis. From the first moments of the conflict, a new IFPRI blog series provided critical information and insights into the impacts on food security, caused by rising food, fertilizer, and fuel prices and trade disruptions, for vulnerable countries and regions.

This decade has been marked by multiple, often overlapping, crises. The COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and the ongoing war in Ukraine have all threatened the fabric of our global food systems. But opportunities can be found amid crises, and the world’s food systems have demonstrated surprising resilience. With new evidence on what works, now is the time to rethink how we address food crises.