Knowledge Portal

This Policy Option Paper (PDF) from the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and World Economic Forum (WEF) identifies options for policies and international trade rules to respond to current challenges. »

This paper (PDF) from the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and SNV is a background paper to the Nutrition and Gender Sensitive Agriculture (NGSA) Toolkit. The paper refers to the current discussions on linking food and nutrition security at program level. It looks at the discussions from a gender lens, and how this demands for a different way of program planning. It shows the need to plan programs based on knowledge of the current realities of men and women in a particular context and time. To facilitate this kind of program planning, the toolkit promotes an integrated approach to understand under-nutrition through linking different sectors -namely agriculture, nutrition, WASH- using a gender lens. »

This issue of Farming Matters presents stories about women from who forge positive change through agro-ecology on their farms and in their communities. While around the world women leverage change in their communities using agroecological approaches, only little has been written about it. This issue of Farming Matters presents stories and analyses of agro-ecology as a strategy for women to create safe, healthy and just societies. »

This article employs a calorie-based approach to determine which feed calories do compete with human consumption for crop use and considers to what extent alternative scenarios could have reduced this competition between food and feed. Animal production exerts significant demands on land, water and food resources. However, demand for animal source foods has more than tripled over the past 50 years and the livestock sector has transitioned towards more intensive and concentrated production systems. »

In this blog post on the INCLUDE platform, Marije Balt from Springfactor elaborates on youth moving to urban areas and explores programmes and plans of donors to invest in job creation in Africa’s largest sector, agriculture. The blog highlights a number of obstacles faced by young people wishing to engage in agriculture, such as the stigma surrounding agriculture as a lifestyle and source of livelihood, restricted access to land, irrelevant education, inability to handle risk and poor access to finance. Comprehensive approaches are needed, both in rural and urban areas, in agriculture and other sectors, whuch can help youth in Africa find decent work and stop looking for the proverbial greener pastures elsewhere, Balt concludes. »

This article argues that multifunctional rooftop horticulture is one of the more promising strategies to increase horticulture production in urbanized areas. It summarizes the different models and advantages of rooftop horticulture and provides a review of the main features of rooftop horticulture. It brings together existing experiences as well as suggestions for planning of future sustainable cities. »