Innovation `imperative’ for securing rice production

21/02/2024 0 Comments read Climate Change, Environment & Development, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 19.02.2024 (SciDev.Net): Innovations in rice production and eco-friendly practises must be made viable for small-scale farmers in the global South in the face of climate threats, says Yvonne Pinto, incoming head of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Relied upon by more than half of the world’s population for nearly 80 per cent of their dietary needs, rice is pivotal to ensuring global food security, with consumption increasing even as the climate crisis jeopardises production and the livelihoods of millions of people.

About 520.4 million metric tonnes were consumed worldwide in the 2022-23 crop year, up by almost a quarter from 437.2 million metric tonnes in the crop year 2008-2009, according to the data platform Statista. The Food and Agriculture Organization says developing countries produce and consume about 95 per cent of the global rice output.

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Crisis resilience ‘critical’ to stem rising hunger

19/04/2023 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 19.04.2023 (SciDev.Net): A shift towards permanent “crisis resilience” from short-term aid is crucial to mitigate increasingly frequent shocks to the global food system and tackle rising global hunger, say food policy researchers.

Disruption to food systems from multiple crises such as economic downturn, conflict, climate change-related weather events and the COVID-19 pandemic, has caused a surge in acute food insecurity in recent years.

The Global Report on Food Crisis: Mid-Year Update 2022 estimates that as many as 205 million people in 45 countries experienced crisis-level acute food insecurity or worse, nearly double the number in 2016. It says requests for humanitarian assistance reached a record high of US$41 billion.

“Crises, shocks, and volatility are no longer exceptions and may become the new normal,” says Johan Swinnen, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and managing director of the CGIAR Systems Transformation. “We should better predict and prepare, implement effective and accountable governance and institutions, and invest to build resilience against future crises.”

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Agri-food R&D spend ‘falling’, say experts

19/08/2022 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 19.08.2022 (SciDev.Net): Investments in agriculture and food research are declining at a time when these sectors are facing significant risks arising from climate change, biodiversity loss and the spread of pests and diseases that affect plants, animals and humans, an international conference heard.

“As a single and sobering example of the shift in investment in agricultural research, the spending of CGIAR, the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network, has declined in inflation-adjusted terms by almost 40 per cent since 2014,” said Philip Pardey, co-director of the GEMS agro-informatics initiative and director of global research strategy at the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Speaking at The Crawford Fund annual conference held in Canberra, Australia on 15 and 16 August, Pardey said that all available evidence supports a doubling of agri-food R&D spending. “For every dollar invested in agricultural R&D, there is a return of US$10 in social benefit, and this level of return has been consistent over many years,” he said. “Yet, agri-food R&D spending is a declining share of total R&D spending.”

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