Working paper

This working paper analyses how cities and secondary towns affect agricultural practices in their rural hinterlands. While most of the population in sub-Saharan Africa resides in cities and secondary towns, this relationship is not well understood. »

This project paper by IFPRI describes what it will take to achieve a level of irrigation investment that supports sustainable agriculture for improved food security and nutrition. Climate change and all the resulting uncertainties are sparking new interest in raising investments in irrigation to enable more stable food production. The authors conclude that irrigation has an important role to play in enhancing future food security and the time for targeted investments is now. »

This working paper describes recent initiatives in Bangladesh and Nepal to reverse declining soil fertility and promote sustainable agricultural practices by increasing the use of organic fertiliser – from both commercial and household sources. The authors state that to break the vicious cycle whereby intensive agriculture in both countries depletes soil organic matter and increases vulnerability to drought, an integrated approach is required which balances applications of organic and chemical fertilisers and promotes agronomic practices that enhance soil fertility. »

This paper by IFPRI assesses the nature of land administration service delivery in Nigeria using data collected from three sets of participants in land administration processes. The particpants include: 76 service providers, 253 beneficiaries, and 172 professionals. Land registration information guidelines seem to be rarely available to the public. »

This research paper by CCAFS is the result of a joint effort among a small group of researchers to identify pathways for transformation towards sustainable food systems, which are resilient towards shocks and towards climate change in particular. Using empirical studies, both transformations in governance systems and governance of transformations were investigated. »

This working paper by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) highlights opportunities and limitations for understanding agricultural drivers of deforestation through remote sensing. In this working paper, 14 of the most commonly used land cover data products are identified, with summarised spatial data, temporal and thematic properties, and estimates of forest and cropland area are compared. The limitations to land cover data that result from their divergent predictions are described and the implications for using this data to assess the agricultural drivers of deforestation in Africa are discussed. »