Discussion paper

This paper documents the importance of indigenous foods and food systems in Uganda in order to inform policies, programmes at the local and national level. There is limited awareness of the potential of indigenous foods to address food and nutrition security, climate change and environmental challenges due to lack of investment to improve yields and markets,  and the perceptions of  it being a poor man’s food. »

This discussion paper provides an understanding of the Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs) and highlight implications for their implementations by the United Nations Rome-Based Agencies (RBAs). The potential of GTAs lies in the radical proposition of attempting to address the foundations of gender inequity. The implications for implementation include the need for conceptual clarity and integrity; the role of external agents in normative change; approaches to learning about, and capacity‐strengthening for, implementing GTAs; problematizing the scaling of GTAs; and the need for organizational introspection and preparedness. »

This discussion paper identified a large set of research questions that, if answered, could shed light on both how the food system in Bangladesh works, and the rate of change of food system transformation in Bangladesh. Both government interventions and innovations are needed to help shift the national food system to improve nutrient-dense food availability, particularly among the poor, and to limit the increase in processed food consumption. »

This discussion paper explores the reasons for the lack of agricultural diversity from the perspectives of smallholder households, market actors and extension officers. Zambia’s diversification agenda should be based on  the priorities and requirements of farming households. To succeed it will require the collective efforts of key players, and a range of co-ordinated policy changes. »

This study examined the gendered differences in women’s and men’s involvement in emerging markets for rice and wheat reaper-harvester machinery services in Bangladesh. The study shows that women benefit from managing and sometimes owning machinery services, as well as from the direct and indirect consequences of hiring such services to harvest their crops. However, a number of technical, economic, and cultural barriers appear to constrain female participation. »

This discussion paper evaluates the effectiveness of an information and communication technology (ICT) mediated approach to deliver agricultural information in a field experiment conducted among small-scale maize farmers in eastern Uganda. Results showed that video is effective in delivering information. However, the incremental effects of IVR and SMS technologies were found to be limited. »