Knowledge Portal

This book argues that sustainable soil management and responsible land governance have great potential for being one of the corner stones to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). It argues that the costs of doing nothing about land degradatio are several times higher than the costs of taking action to reverse it. This volume deals with land degradation, which is stretching to about 30% of the total global land area. About three billion people reside in these degraded lands. »

This article explores how sustainable livestock production can be designed to limit its impacts on the environment and available resources. There are several strategies to curb the adverse environmental impacts of the livestock production and implementing sustainable livestock production is one of them. In this strategy livestock feed components that compete with direct human food crop production are reduced. The article shows, zero use of food competing foodstuffs would deliver substantial environmental improvements across a range of indicators as compared with the reference scenario (i.e. business as usual in 2050), and small improvements with the exception of freshwater use. »

This journal elaborates on the increasing influence of transnational corporation over policy-making and its impact on the realization of the human right to food and nutrition. It was published on the occasion of Human Rights Day and features political and legal analyses of corporate influencing and stories from the ground. »

This report elaborates on how increased youth involvement in the agricultural value chain can improve food security and diminish youth unemployment. The study assesses where in the farming systems and the agricultural value chain youth is present and tries to understand the perspectives of youth towards agriculture. The study identifies the conditions that influence the involvement of male and female youth in maize and potato value chains in Ethiopia and Kenya. »

This working paper shows that any dedicated use of land for growing bioenergy inherently comes at the cost of not using that land for growing food or animal feed, or for storing carbon. In the past decade, governments have pushed to increase the use of bioenergy. However, bioenergy that entails the dedicated use of land to grow the energy feed stock will undercut efforts to combat climate change and to achieve a sustainable food future. »

In this policy brief the authors urge that not all forms of livestock production are wasteful and energy-intensive. People who herd animals or combine livestock keeping and cropping at a smaller scale – called pastoralists or agro-pastoralists – can sustainably produce meat, milk, and other animal products. »