Academic article

This review article summarizes key evidence from the HarvestPlus program on how biofortification has helped improve nutrition worldwide between 2003 and 2016. Delivery experiences in various target countries (Bangladesh, DR Congo, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia) are discusses, as well as farmer and consumer adoption. According to the authors, attention should now shift to an action-oriented agenda for scaling biofortification to improve nutrition globally. »

This special of Agricultural Systems focuses on prioritising climate-smart agricultural (CSA) interventions at different scales. Currently, there are few tools that can comprehensively evaluate the range of potential technologies and practices and their possible impacts on food production, environmental sustainability, and mitigation in any context. This special issue brings together nine papers describing a wide range of approaches and tools, of which some focus on the financial considerations for prioritization. »

This article assesses the combined effects of Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) practices and soil fertility management on rain water productivity of maize hybrid. On-farm experiments were carried out in two districts of Burkina Faso. The treatments were built as association of two SWC technologies combined with three fertilization options. It is found that the efficacy of SWC practices decrease with the increase in the mean annual rainfall. »

This article discusses how smallholder farmers perceive climate change, what adaptation strategies they practice, and factors that influence their adaptation decisions. Both primary and secondary data were used for the study, and a multinomial logit model was employed to identify the factors that shape smallholder farmers’ adaptation strategies. »

This article demonstrates the potential to track smallholder maize yield variation in western Kenya, using a combination of 1-m imagery and intensive field sampling on thousands of fields over 2 years. The emergence of satellite sensors that can routinely observe millions of individual smallholder farms raises possibilities for monitoring and understanding agricultural productivity in many regions of the world. »

This article discusses role of social protection programming design and implementation to ensure gender equality in food security and agricultural productivity. Gender inequality continues to constrain women’s opportunities in the agricultural sector. However, investment in gender-responsive programming which promotes women’s empowerment can help to overcome these constraints. »