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Focus on: Gender and Agriculture |
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Pathways to transformation for smallholder women
 Sustainable transformation in the productivity of smallholder women farmers depends on achieving impacts in five key areas of change, according to the Pathways Programme being implemented by CARE in Africa and Asia. read article |
Achieving gender equity in agricultural value chains
 Agri-ProFocus - a partnership that promotes farmer entrepreneurship in developing countries - has been working to improve gender equity in agricultural value chain initiatives. read article |
Legal empowerment for the women of West Bengal
 In West Bengal, the Swadhina CSO raises awareness of gender justice and women's rights to land. Men and women have taken part in community activities, and women have received empowerment, literacy and leadership training, enabling them to pursue issues with local authorities. read article |
Chickens and eggs: gender dimensions in a marketing project
 In Malindi district on the Kenya coast, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute is engaging women in a project to improve the value chain for indigenous chicken and eggs. read article |
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GFAR: Research and innovation |
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Seeking harmony in Indonesia
 To help planners and policymakers balance the needs of agricultural development and nature conservation on the Indonesian island of Seram, a foresight tool was used to outline four land-use planning scenarios, each representing a possible future. read article |
Mastering trade liberalisation in Morocco
 Morocco's agricultural and rural sectors are facing new economic, social and environmental challenges imposed by globalisation. Developing a new vision and strategy for agriculture, shared by all actors, is crucial for achieving equitable and sustainable progress. read article |
Sustaining Mendoza's environmental future
 In Mendoza Province, Argentina, the quality and quantity of water and soil are rapidly diminishing. Recognising the environmental vulnerability and fragility of the area, a foresight study has forecast Mendoza's environmental future up to 2030. read article |
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Developments |
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Leading the agricultural revolution from within Africa
 The BecA-ILRI Hub has woven a strong capacity-building programme into all of its activities to ensure that not only are new technologies and agricultural strategies being developed, but that scientific capacity within the continent is being built. read article |
M-Farm: giving farmers the right connections
 M-Farm, a mobile phone-based market information and trading service, is giving Kenyan farmers access to market prices, connecting them directly with buyers, and enabling them to bulk their produce to meet market needs and purchase inputs at discounted prices. read article |
Restoring Peru's lost cloud forests
 In the cloud forests of Peru and Ecuador, 5000 farmers have been trained to practise layer farming, an agroforestry technique that provides short and long term food and income, while reversing traditional slash-and-burn practices. read article |
Drought tolerant maize in Mali
 In Mali, hundreds of farmers have begun to plant quick maturing, drought tolerant maize. Supply of basic seed to scale up seed multiplication and adoption of the new varieties is being carried out by farmers and the private sector, with support from the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project. read article |
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Points of view |
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Seeking an end to malnutrition
 Crop and nutrition experts at The Economist's 'Feeding the World' conference discuss strategies for overcoming malnutrition, including biofortification, education and empowerment of girls and women, and shifting focus towards minor and local crops. read article
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In pictures |
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Aflatoxin - fighting an invisible killer
 Developed in the US and adapted for African conditions by IITA, aflasafe™ is an easy to use product that can protect crops from contamination by harmful, aflatoxin-producing fungus. After successful field trials in Nigeria, it is now being adapted for use by other African countries. read article |
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My perspective |
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Robin Bourgeois, GFAR
 Robin Bourgeois of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) reflects critically on the strategies for feeding the global population presented during The Economist's 'Feeding the World' conference held in Amsterdam in January 2013. read article |
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Country profile |
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Papua New Guinea
 Papua New Guinea (PNG) has great geographical diversity and is rich in natural resources. But despite PNG having the eighth fastest-growing economy in 2012, about one third of the population lives on less than US$1.25 per day. read article |
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GFAR updates |
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 GFAR present a selection of brief news items based around recent international and regional events and meetings concerned with agricultural innovation and its implications in development. read article |
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News brief |
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 Recent news, including catastrophic loss of Cambodia's tropical flooded grasslands, the importance of recognising how climate change impacts food security of the urban poor, and the potential of African agriculture and agribusiness to be worth US$1 trillion by 2030. read article |
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Book reviews |
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 Reviews of some of the latest agriculture and rural development publications, including The Global Farms Race by Michael Kugelman and Susan L. Levenstein. read article |
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