ABSTRACTED FROM WEB INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In order to inform Myanmar’s first multi-stakeholder national dialogue workshop on land tenure and user rights (held November 24th & 25th, 2012), Forest Trend’s Senior Law & Policy Advisor Rob Oberndorf was asked to conduct an in-depth analysis of recently enacted land legislation in the country, and suggest ways in which the legal frameworks relating to rural land management could be improved. This report is the result of that research and analysis assignment.

BACKGROUND: For agricultural systems to achieve climate-smart objectives, including improved food security and rural livelihoods as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation, they often need to be take a landscape approach; they must become ‘climate-smart landscapes’. Climate-smart landscapes operate on the principles of integrated landscape management, while explicitly incorporating adaptation and mitigation into their management objectives.

Over the past few years, agribusiness, investment funds and government agencies have been acquiring long-term rights over large areas of farmland in lower income countries. It is widely thought that private sector expectations of higher agricultural commodity prices and government concerns about longer-term food and energy security underpin much recent land acquisition for agricultural investments. These processes are expected to have lasting and far-reaching implications for world agriculture and for livelihoods and food security in recipient countries.

Study on household food security is very essential now that Nigeria is currently facing the problem of food crisis. This study presents findings on household food security in the North Central Nigeria (NCN). The first objective was to review and highlight the commonly used measures of households' food security with their pros and cons; second, to determine the food security status of households; and third, to analyse the determinants of household food security status in the study area.

Large-scale irrigation schemes have not yielded the expected outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Mauritania, average land productivity of rice schemes lies between 3 and 3.5tha⁻¹ and irrigated land has progressively being abandoned. At the same time, there is new international attention towards interventions in large-scale irrigation in the Sahel. Spatial and temporal variability of production are main causes of low productivity of large-scale irrigation schemes in Mauritania and threats to their sustainability.

The social and economic consequences of horticultural product food losses from farm to the consumer remain unacceptably high. In developing countries postharvest losses compromise food security, income generation and poverty alleviation for millions of families. In developed countries substantial product losses result in economic losses to supply chain participants and reduced supplies of healthy products into international markets.

The growth of private investment in developing‐country agriculture, new advances in the biological sciences, and rapid integration of developing countries into the global trading system has heightened interest in the topic of seed market and intellectual property rights’ (IPRs) policies among public policy‐makers, corporate decision‐makers and other actors in the agricultural sector.

Rapidly increasing demand for food, fiber, and fuel together with new technologies and the mobility of global capital are driving revolutionary changes in land use throughout the world. Efforts to increase land productivity include conversion of millions of hectares of rangelands to crop production, including many marginal lands with low resistance and resilience to degradation. Sustaining the productivity of these lands requires careful land use planning and innovative management systems.

BACKGROUND: Maize is the most important staple food in Kenya; any reduction in production and yield therefore often becomes a national food security concern. To address the challenge posed by the maize stem borer, the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) agricultural biotechnology public-private partnership (PPP) project was launched in 1999. There were, however, pre-existing concerns regarding the use of genetic engineering in crop production and skepticism about private sector involvement.

Much concern has been raised about how multifactor global change has affected food security and carbon sequestration capacity in China.

BackgroundGrasslands are a major part of the global ecosystem, covering 37 % of the earth's terrestrial area. For a variety of reasons, mostly related to overgrazing and the resulting problems of soil erosion and weed encroachment, many of the world's natural grasslands are in poor condition and showing signs of degradation. This review examines their contribution to global food supply and to combating climate change.ScopeGrasslands make a significant contribution to food security through providing part of the feed requirements of ruminants used for meat and milk production.