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July 20, 2016Knowledge Portal
Livestock wealth and social capital as insurance against climate risk: A case study of Samburu County in Kenya

This article, published in the Agricultural Systems journal, uses data from 500 households in Samburu County (Kenya) to explore how natural environment and market accessibility affect coping and adaptation strategies of pastoralists. In particular, the authors ask whether households accumulate livestock wealth and invest in structural and cognitive social capital to protect themselves against climate risks. »

July 12, 2016Knowledge Portal
Sustainable intensification of agricultural systems in the Central African Highlands: The need for institutional innovation

This study in the Agricultural Systems Journal identifies entry points for innovation for sustainable intensification of agricultural systems. An agricultural innovation systems approach is used to provide a holistic image of (relations between) constraints faced by different stakeholder groups, the dimensions and causes of these constraints, and intervention levels, timeframes and types of innovations needed. The data shows that constraints for sustainable intensification of agricultural systems are mainly of economic and institutional nature. »

July 4, 2016Knowledge Portal
Vegetable seed availability and implications for developing countries: A perspective from Morocco

This paper, published in the Outlook on Agriculture journal, provides an overview and analysis of vegetable seed industries in developing countries, with a focus on Morocco, and the resulting influences on smaller subsistence farmers. The ongoing problems and issues related to the absence of vegetable seed industries in developing countries will undoubtedly affect food production, nutritional health and the resulting food security in these countries for future generations. »

July 1, 2016Knowledge Portal
Balancing detail and scale in assessing transparency to improve the governance of agricultural commodity supply chains

In this article in the Environmental Research Letters, a complementary approach to existing approaches of assessing the sustainability of commodity supply chains is introduced. This approach can help provide actionable information, for example to improve sourcing and production practices, without requiring costly dedicated tracking systems for each individual supply chain. »

July 1, 2016Knowledge Portal
Reducing food losses to protect domestic food security in the Middle East and North Africa

This article investigates several policy strategies to protect domestic food security through reducing food losses. The study scrutinizes three policy responses to rising world food prices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. »

June 30, 2016Knowledge Portal
Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh

This paper in the Journal of Rural Studies operationalizes the concept of social wellbeing (comprised of interlinked material, subjective and relational dimensions) as a framework for understanding the effects of agrarian change, as experienced by inhabitants of two villages in rural Southwest Bangladesh. Production of two ostensibly similar high value export crops (tiger shrimp and freshwater prawn) resulted in radically different trajectories of agrarian change and social wellbeing outcomes in the two villages. »