Persistent food insecurity in the global south has triggered calls for sustainable development worldwide. Moreover, more than a quarter of the world's population suffers from micronutrient deficiencies or hidden hunger. The population bulge, declining soil fertility and inadequate/inappropriate use of farm inputs in Sub-Saharan Africa place it in a precarious position. Multi-nutrient fertilizer blends have been mooted as a key innovation in closing yield gaps and boosting food and nutrition security.

In the last decade various countries, regions and cities from low-income to high-income economies have been developing Public Food Procurement (PFP) initiatives designed to use government purchasing power and regular demand for food as a policy instrument to promote sustainable development. These initiatives – often referred also as institutional food procurement - include school feeding or school meals programmes , as well as the purchase of food for public hospitals, prisons, universities, public building’s cafeterias, and other social programmes.

Finding out how to scale innovations successfully is high on the agendas of researchers, practitioners and policy makers involved in agricultural development. New approaches and methodologies seek to better address related complexities, but none of them include a systematic perspective on the role of capacity in (partnerships for) scaling innovations. We posit that this has left an important topic insufficiently addressed in relation to partnerships for scaling innovations.

Inclusive land restoration is increasingly considered to be a critical sustainable pathway to the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in developing countries. The literature suggests that good governance practices support successful sustainable natural resource management. The study assesses the role of landscape governance in a long-term thriving forest and landscape restoration project in Shinyanga.

Landscape governance refers to the combination of rules and decision-making processes of civic, private, and public actors with stakes in the landscape, that together shape the future of that landscape. As part of the Green Livelihoods Alliance, a program that supports civil society organizations (CSOs) to strengthen the governance of tropical forested landscapes, we developed and implemented a method that facilitates stakeholders to assess the status of governance in their own landscape and to identify options for improvement.

Five years ago, the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by 193 countries. They set out an ambitious plan to eradicate global poverty and achieve sustainable development by 2030 ensuring that "no one is left behind". Work to deliver on that commitment has reaped some rewards, such as improving maternal and child health, expanding access to electricity and increasing women’s representation in government. Yet with just ten years left, we still have a very long way to go, especially in terms of meeting the 'climate and environment' commitments.

Value chain for development (VCD) has increasingly been promoted for poverty reduction; yet, there is inadequate evidence on its effectiveness. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this article offers reasons why evidence on VCD impacts on poverty reduction is uncertain. It also suggests a conceptual framework for the poor-centred value chain for sustainable development to guide a better analysis of VCD participation and poverty impacts. The framework is particularly useful for researchers involved in research for development related projects in the VCD space.

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is the production of plants, fish, insects or animals inside structures, such as greenhouses and buildings, in controlled conditions. In a rapidly urbanizing world, CEA can contribute to sustainable development, e.g. through reduced use of land, water and inputs. There is a need for innovation in policy, technology and business practices to scale up CEA in the Global South sustainably and equitably.

Indonesia, the most mangrove-rich nation in the world, has proposed the most globally ambitious mangrove rehabilitation target (600,000 ha) of any nation, to be achieved by 2024 to support multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 1–3, 6, 13 and 14). Yet, mangrove restoration and rehabilitation across the world have often suffered low success rates and been applied at small scales. Here, we identify 193,367 ha (estimated costs at US$0.29–1.74 billion) that have the potential to align with the national mangrove rehabilitation programme.

The rising concerns of over-exploitation of groundwater resources, increasing cost of inputs and cultivation, timely availability of labor and energy, degradation of soil health, and climate change prevail in major agri-food systems in Bangladesh. Thus, reversing the unsustainable way of practicing agriculture to climate-smart agriculture would be key to sustainable agricultural development and productivity.

Freshwater systems are disproportionately adversely affected by the ongoing, global environmental crisis. The effective and efficient water resource conservation and management necessary to mitigate the crisis requires monitoring data, especially on water quality. This is recognized by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, particularly indicator 6.3.2., which requires all UN member states to measure and report the ‘proportion of water bodies with good ambient water quality’.

Identification of the data gaps can help determine the appropriate methods to improve aquaculture farm operation, production and market access, as well as community capacity. The data gaps can be addressed by
creating a national aquaculture database in collaboration with various stakeholders including government bodies, research institutes, private entities, and aquaculture farmers.