Global

In this column, Christian Timmermann and Georges Félix claim that we need to focus our attention on creating innovations that can be reproduces with spare local parts and as little external inputs as possible, to ensure that the innovations reach the neediest. The authors argue that to address the human right to adequate food in the upcoming years and decades, policy-makers have assigned the globalized knowledge economy the task to deliver the necessary technological solutions. However, this approach fails to include the inventive capacity and active involvement of smallholders. »

In 2015 we celebrated the “International Year of Soils”. Soil sustains all our agricultural and livestock food production, wood for fuel production, filters water so that we can drink it and fish can live in it. We also use it for construction – therefore it sustains our homes and infrastructure. The FAO highlighted here are the six essentials to take away. »

This blogpost on the GAIN-webpage explores whether there are limits to the capacity of our global food system to deal with increased urbanization. The author argues that what is needed to ensure emerging urban markets do not lose nutritious foods, is the scaling up of innovative green cold chain technologies. »

This book by Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla, provides an introduction to policy analysis related to monetary, financial, fiscal, exchange rate, and trade policies as they affect, and are affected by, agricultural and food security issues. Its approach, based on a simplified macroeconomic consistency framework, uses empirical cases to illustrate the problems involved. »

This report by CFS; FAO; IFAD and WFP (PDF) provides case studies from different regions, that set out the challenges, successes and lessons learned relating to the development of knowledge, skills and capacity for youth in agriculture. The case studies cover the areas of peer-to-peer knowledge transfer, vocational training and skills development, and education systems and research. »

This toolkit is a collection of instructions, tools and stories to help develop and scale mobile agriculture products by applying a user-centered design approach. The toolkit is a collection of instructions, tools and stories to help develop and scale mobile agriculture products by applying a user-centered design approach. It provides guides for different stages in a product development cycle elaborating on the tools and displaying stories from the field. »