New Food & Business research projects awarded

In April 2014, ten Food & Business (F&B) research projects have been awarded funding by WOTRO Science for Global Development. Five projects fall under the F&B Global Challenges Programme (GCP), the other five will receive funding from the F&B Applied Research Fund (ARF).

First GCP projects

The GCP projects are the first research proposals that receive funding as part of this new instrument. Each project will focus on specific emerging key issues in food security and their impact on regional and local food security, as well as on the role of the private sector. The research will be conducted by consortia of researchers and various private and/or public partners from the Netherlands and LMICs. GCP projects receive a maximum of 600,000 euro, not including the required co-funding from consortium partners.

The now awarded projects include research into the adaptation of the production of porc to local conditions, the development of a system that makes pond farming more sustainable and predictable, a study into the development potential of Zambian traditional fermented foods, an examination of the impacts of commercially-driven investments in cash crop production and a study of inclusive business-smallholder partnerships in Ghana and South Africa. For a summary of each awarded proposal, as well as a list of all participating organizations and companies, visit the F&B Research website.

ARF funded projects

The five awarded ARF research proposals are the result of the second round of the first call for proposals for the fund. They are added to the two projects that were awarded in the first round. More awards are expected later this year as a result of the third round of the call.

ARF projects are aimed at the development of innovations that are readily applicable and that contribute to sustainable food security for the most vulnerable populations. The now awarded projects focus on farmer-led innovations for sustainable food production in Uganda, the impact of gender, land rights and business models on food security in rural Mozambique, more efficient production of potatoes in Burundi the development of an indigenous African vegetable system in Sub-Saharan Africa and the identification of environment friendly biological rice crop protection in Indonesia. Short summaries of all projects and the consortia members are available on the F&B Research website.

The new ARF projects will start in the next few months and will take up to three years. All research teams are led by a practitioner organization from one of the 15 partner countries of Dutch development cooperation. Other team members are Dutch or LMIC research or higher education organisations and, in some cases, also other local enterprises. The budget of ARF projects varies between 50,000 and 300,000 euro, depending on the project duration and excluding co-funding from consortium partners.