Food and agriculture blogs
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We need to safeguard biodiversity and promote diverse diets
22 May 2018Coinciding with this year’s International Day for Biodiversity, a new report from IIED and Hivos explores how we can reverse the alarming loss of biodiversity in agriculture and foster diverse diets.
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How people are providing evidence, and influencing to get food policies that work for them
25 April 2018Food policies that are based on evidence and advocacy delivered by citizens are more likely to benefit those whose lives they affect most. An event this week heard how connecting people to policy can help secure healthy and more sustainable diets for everyone.
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Attracting Zambia's youth to agriculture: it's about time
29 January 2018Zambia's vibrant youth are crucial to developing a prosperous agricultural sector. This means shaking off outdated perceptions and providing young people with the right incentives
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Food, ecosystems, equality – can we have it all?
19 December 2017Sustainable landscapes are essential for our future. A major international gathering will this week look at how to speed up action for more resilient, equitable, productive and climate-friendly landscapes. IIED and partners have recently launched a new project that will use innovative ways of working to promote these outcomes in Africa
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Nourishing diversity in our food systems
10 October 2017Although our food systems seemingly deliver impressive abundance and variety, we are losing crucial agricultural biodiversity and our increasingly homogenised diets are leading to disease and obesity. Seth Cook sets out five steps for better, more diverse food systems
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Shaping the future of forest and farm landscapes in Africa
21 August 2017As part of a new interdisciplinary partnership, IIED will be working with sector experts, scientists and practitioners to better understand and manage the growing competition for land in Sub-Saharan Africa, as governments seek to balance food production with forest conservation targets
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Promoting diversity on the farm – and the plate
5 June 2017As a recent meeting in Lusaka showed, Food Change Labs offer an innovative path towards greater diversity on the farm and on the plate in Zambia
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Notes from the field – Dlonguebougou, Mali
11 April 2017Returning to the village in Mali she first studied 35 years ago, senior fellow Camilla Toulmin finds three changes remarkable
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Reframing food security for an urbanising world
10 April 2017Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030 means taking account of changes in both rural and urban contexts. Cecilia Tacoli reports back from a workshop organised with IFAD on some of the issues raised
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Fall army worm maize attack: a case for diversity from farm to fork
8 February 2017As the Zambian government scales up efforts to control an army worm outbreak that is damaging maize crops across the country, William Chilufya wonders if the infestation will encourage a policy shift away from mono-cropping maize
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Designing a biocultural heritage labelling system: survey results
16 January 2017Our survey found broad support for a labelling scheme for biocultural heritage-based products. Now we need to get a pilot project off the ground
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How much can the eyes in the sky really tell us about deforestation?
11 January 2017A recent study by the University of Edinburgh and IIED reveals the limitations of remote sensing technology to monitor the impacts of agriculture expansion on forests in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why food diversity must be on the menu
14 October 2016As World Food Day approaches, Seth Cook explores the dangers of losing local crop and animal varieties and what we can do about it
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Mixing more voices into food policy
10 October 2016How an innovative 'Food Change Lab' in Uganda is bringing together a range of voices to shape a food system that works for all, including ordinary citizens
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Growing rice needs more than soil and water
30 September 2016Research in West Africa finds that smallholder farmers are not benefiting enough from investments in irrigation because they are not getting access to the agriculture services they need
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Farming the future: Cuba's food transformation
19 May 2016A visit to Cuba served up a menu of innovative climate-friendly food projects for Khanh Tran-Thanh
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Chinese engagement in African agriculture is not what it seems
6 April 2016New research by IIED's Seth Cook, which features in the journal World Development, uses the agri-food sector in Ethiopia and Ghana to show how the role of Chinese migrants in Africa is poorly researched and understood
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Nurturing the shoots of China's sustainable agriculture
23 March 2016A growing trend towards sustainable food offers hope for addressing environmental, social and food safety concerns associated with China's food system
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Nourishing livelihoods: the food vendors sustaining Nairobi's slums
15 January 2016Selling food in Nairobi's informal settlements can provide cheap meals and create vital livelihoods, especially for women, but these providers are usually ignored and remain invisible
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Making sure Fort Portal's 'modernisation' plan feeds the poor
11 December 2015An innovative research project in Fort Portal, Uganda is seeking to prevent a rise in inequality as the city modernises
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A new kind of brew: smallholder coffee and carbon
8 December 2015Has shade coffee shed new light on the multiple benefits from improved agricultural systems? Ina Porras blends together a number of thoughts after a side event at the Global Landscape Forum
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Building fairer food futures
16 October 2015Powerful images from Uganda and Indonesia highlight the importance of informal food vendors in the food systems of the rural and urban poor
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Zero deforestation supply chains: promoting sustainable chocolate
16 September 2015How can we make chocolate more sustainable? This was one of the questions addressed by IIED researchers in a presentation at the World Forestry Congress in Durban.
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Consultation: designing a new biocultural heritage indication
20 August 2015How can indigenous people benefit more from their biocultural heritage? A new project wants to hear your feedback on how a labelling scheme for biocultural heritage-based products could work
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For smallholders and dams, one size doesn't fit all
6 August 2015Photos taken for the Global Water Initiative in West Africa in villages around the Sélingué dam in Mali show that when it comes to the irrigation schemes surrounding large dams, there is no 'standard' example of a family farmer