Policy

November 28, 2019November 28, 2019

Mainstreaming agrobiodiversity for nutrition

A new discussion paper from GAIN, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, looks at some indicative Policies and financing to spur appropriate private-sector engagement in food systems. “Appropriate” meaning conducive to the production and consumption of more agrobiodiverse diets. It’s not long, so you should probably read the whole thing. But here are the take-home messages, to whet your appetite, as it were:

reduce taxes and increase subsidies on nutritious crops and foods (eg fruits and vegetables)
amend policies which encourage biofortification and industrial fortification to also include encouraging the increased production and consumption of existing nutritious species and varieties
make the case for diverse farming systems to impact investors and blended finance practitioners
nudge business sustainability strategies to include biodiversity and ecosystem considerations (eg, via the Agrobiodiversity Index)

Not a comprehensive list, of course, but a pretty good start.

November 27, 2019November 27, 2019

Nibbles: GB8, Aqueduct, Soviet tea, Tilapia virus, Quelites, NUS, Golden Thread, China Neolithic, Organic maize

Virginia Gewin on GB8.
Mapping water risks around the world.
The decline and rise of Georgian tea.
Virus hits tilapia. A lot of people could be hurt.
Amaranthus in Mexico.
Just one of many relatively neglected crops around the world that shouldn’t be.
How wheat took over China. That was kinda underused at first too.
Long webinar on organic maize breeding. Amaranthus next?
The rise of fabric.

November 26, 2019November 26, 2019

Nibbles: International genebanks, Ahmed Amri, Genebank management, Nutrition stories, Spice nomenclature, Breeding against waste, Cuneiform tablets, Breadfruit, Ag risk, Giant pineapple, Chiles in Mexico, Solanum jamesii, Seed Week, Kenyan community seedbank, Lost apples

The CGIAR genebanks in the limelight.
My friend Ahmed Amri is a big reason for the success of the above.
The dual role of genebank managers like Ahmed.
Feel-good nutrition stories needed.
Rosemary gets a name change. Not many people hurt.
Fighting food waste through breeding.
Babylonian cooking deciphered.
Breadfruit (and Diane Ragone) on TV.
Maize looks doomed in Zambia. All hail sorghum.
Food exhibition at the Fitzwilliam.
Chiltepin culture.
The forgotten potato of the Four Corners.
Hey, it’s Seed Week 2019 in the UK and Ireland!
Something similar in Kenya too, thanks to Bioversity and CCAFS.
There’s always an apple detective story around this time of year.

November 22, 2019

A bit more on what happened at GB8

I did suggest a couple of days ago that I’d have more to say about the Eighth Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. And here it is, over at the work blog.

If you think I got anything wrong, or missed anything out, or you want further details or clarifications, you can leave comments here if you like, and I’ll try to reply, or get others to do so if I can’t.

November 21, 2019November 21, 2019

Staving off the apocalypse

Multiplying the budget of CGIAR, the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network, would be a good start. And, in a time of great disruptions, we ought to prioritize Sustainable Development Goal 2.4, implementing resilient agricultural practices, with a greater focus on smallholder farmers in developing countries.

That’s from a post by Asaf Tzachor, research associate at the cheerfully named Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, cheerfully entitled Down the Hunger Spiral: Pathways to the Disintegration of the Global Food System. Hard to argue with, except for maybe that SDG 2.5 may be even more important than 2.4

And it was soon backed up by a piece in The Economist which had agricultural R&D in the top 3 value-for-money development interventions for Africa, according to the Copenhagen Consensus.

So what’s the hold-up?