New findings suggest that more intensive agriculture might be the “least bad” option for feeding the world while saving its species—provided use of such “land-efficient” systems prevents further conversion of wilderness to farmland. Continue reading
The debate over whether a vegetarian diet is better for the planet is top of mind for many as news of water scarcity, climate change, and deforestation seem to worsen by the day. Sarah Taber, a US-based agricultural scientist added another angle to the debate earlier this month when she laid out the argument that calling vegetarianism and/or veganism a universally ‘better’ diet is a form of colonialist thinking. Continue reading
Do we really need to double food production? In an analysis published in BioScience, my coauthors and I offer a recalibrated vision of sustainable intensification. We conclude that food production does not need to double by 2050, which would require unprecedented growth, but instead needs to continue increasing at roughly historical rates. . . . Continue reading
The CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics (Humidtropics) was an agricultural research for development program that aimed for sustainable intensification of agricultural systems to improve the livelihoods of farm households. The Central Mekong Action Area was primarily focused on the complex of rice and non-rice farming systems (plus areas with other land uses) in the non-flood-prone lowlands, uplands and highlands. The Action Area covered six countries (Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam). Continue reading
On 6 October 2016 the Ambassador of the United States to Burkina Faso, H E Tulinabo S Mushingi, visited Ziga in Yatenga Province, one of the implementation sites of the Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL) project in the country. Continue reading
The Livestock and Manure Management project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Wageningen University & Research Centre (Wageningen UR) invite you to join a series of three webinars—on Wednesdays, 3, 17 and 24 Feb 2016—on ‘Manure: a valuable resource’. Continue reading
Steve Staal, who for the past 15 months has served the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Los Baños, the Philippines, as regional representative for East and South Asia, this month takes up leadership of ILRI’s Policy, Trade and Value Chains program and is now based in Nairobi. Continue reading
A recent perspective piece published in Nature Climate Change by researchers Philip Thornton and Mario Herrero suggests that we still know very little about how climate change will impact these mixed farms and especially the interactions between crops and livestock. This is alarming as mixed farming systems form the backbone of smallholder production in developing countries,producing over 90% of the world’s milk supply and 80% of the meat from ruminants. Continue reading
Agricultural economists working in ILRI and Uganda have designed a new method of identifying and analysing constraints to smallholder farmers’ capacity to serve fast retail markets. Continue reading
At this week’s international conference on Integrated Systems Research for Sustainable Intensification in Smallholder Agriculture, Dolapo Enahoro made a presentation on foresight modeling to guide sustainable intensification of smallholder systems. Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 