The AgriTech Toolbox enables researchers and policymakers to examine how alternative agricultural practices and technologies can impact farm yields, food prices, natural resource use, hunger, malnutrition, land use and global trade in 2050, when climate change impacts may be severe. As a result, it can inform the right mix of policies and investments needed to tackle the challenges agriculture faces in the coming decades. The AgriTech toolbox models the impacts of 10 technologies on farm yields, food prices, natural resource use, hunger, malnutrition, land use and global trade.

This analysis utilizes recent hydrological and meteorological data collected from the Mizewa watershed in Fogera woreda in order to better understand the physical impact of sustainable land and watershed management (SLWM) investments. The effectiveness of the simulated conservation practices (terraces, bunds, and residue management) are evaluated using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model taking into account investment decisions on different terrain types.

Die globale Hungersituation hat sich seit 1990 verbessert, wie der Welthunger-Index 2013 anhand von Daten aus dem Zeitraum 2008-2012 zeigt. Der WHI ist um ein Drittel gesunken. Dennoch ist die weltweite Hungersituation nach wie vor „ernst“. 870 Millionen Men­schen hatten laut Schätzungen der Ernährungs- und Landwirtschafts­organisation der Vereinten Nationen (FAO) im Mittel der Jahre 2010-2012 nicht genug zu essen. Südasien und Afrika südlich der Sahara haben die höchsten WHI-Werte.

Recent experience has shown that as countries get richer, nutritional status does not necessarily improve. In a recent article in the journal The Lancet, IFPRI researchers and others explain that creating the right conditions for nutritional advances often requires political action. The feature article in this issue of Insights looks at how some developing countries and regions—Ghana, Peru, Thailand, and the state of Maharashtra, India—have made nutrition a political priority and how they’ve turned political commitments into widespread changes on the ground.

Irrigation is central to Pakistan’s agriculture; and managing the country’s canal, ground, and surface water resources in a more efficient, equitable, and sustainable way will be crucial to meeting agricultural production challenges, including increasing agricultural productivity and adapting to climate change. The authors use the Net-Map method, an interview tool that combines stakeholder mapping, power mapping, and social network analysis, to examine the relationships between various institutions influencing the water sector in Pakistan.

In this paper, we estimate the allocative inefficiency of groundwater in Pakistani agriculture and compare it across a set of farm-level constraints, using a panel dataset of rural households. The farm-level constraints include tenure, farm size, access to surface water and location on a watercourse. We use a stochastic approach, based on a system of equations to estimate both the technical efficiency of farms and the allocative efficiency of groundwater use. The allocation of surface irrigation water in Pakistan is fixed per unit of land, so its allocative inefficiency cannot be estimate.

As this book shows, farmer field schools have proven to be a very useful approach for helping

African farmers to improve how they manage their land and water. Numerous projects throughout

Africa have shown that they result in improved soils, better yields and higher incomes for farmers.

The document summarizes some of these experiences, points out successes, and – equally important

– shows constraints and gaps that need to be addressed. Particularly important is the list of policy

Brochure

Water, sanitation, and hygiene can have a profound effect on health and nutrition. A growing base of evidence on the link between sanitation, child height, and well-being has come at an opportune time, when the issue of sanitation and nutrition in developing countries has moved to the top of the post-2015 development agenda.

The second of three books in IFPRI's climate change in Africa series, East African Agriculture and Climate Change: A Comprehensive Analysis examines the food security threats facing 10 of the countries that make up east and central Africa - Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda - and explores how climate change will increase the efforts needed to achieve sustainable food security throughout the region. East Africa's populations is expected to grow at least through mid-century. The region will also see income growth.

Institutions of collective action and systems of property rights shape how people use natural resources, and these patterns of use in turn affect the outcomes of people’s agricultural production systems. Together, mechanisms of collective action and property rights define the incentives people face for undertaking sustainable and productive management strategies, and they affect the level and distribution of benefits from natural resources.