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Future Seeds: opening the science of cro...
As part of our activities to support SDG 2.5, we began construction of new genebank late last year. Once completed, Future Seeds, as we call it, will greatly increase our capacity to safeguard threatened crop varieties. It will also give ...
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Future Seeds: opening the science of crop conservation to the world
As part of our activities to support SDG 2.5, we began construction of new genebank late last year. Once completed, Future Seeds, as we call it, will greatly increase our capacity to safeguard threatened crop varieties. It will also give our scientists the modern facility they need to study the ... ➤
No soil left behind: How a cost-effective technology can enrich poor fields
Smallholder poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is often linked to sandy soils, which hold little water and are low in nutrients. A new technology may be able to enrich fields and farmers without massive investments in irrigation and fertilizer ... ➤
Social Progress Index applied in the Sustainable Territories Program
The Social Progress Index (SPI) is a comprehensive measure of the well-being of a society, which aims to support decision-makers in identifying development priorities to generate plans and projects in pockets of high social and environmental vulnerability. The index is based on social and environmental indicators, such as wellness (health, ... ➤
What happens in the city when we understand that the rural-urban link is increasingly strong? Cali’s example
Not a new: agriculture is not an exclusive business from rural areas. For that reason, several years ago, CIAT began to respond to the need of building an inclusive and resilient food system in one of the most important cities in Colombia: Cali ... ➤
Marcela Quintero: Success at Work is a Matter of Balance
Marcela Quintero is one of the most prestigious researchers on environmental and agricultural issues at CIAT. She began her work as a member of a small team that started thinking how to internalize the environmental externalities in water basins. The work on Payment for Environmental Services stemmed from there, a ... ➤
Does Brachiaria stand a chance in smallholder dairy dominated by productive Napier grass in eastern Africa?
Smallholder dairy farming continues to thrive in rural and peri-urban households in East Africa. Thanks to the tangible wins, farmers have derived over time milk, manure, and financial income, among other benefits. However, feeding the animals is akin to Napier grass, courtesy for its high biomass production and withstanding frequent ... ➤
Florence Makokha and her journey to success
Florence Makokha did not have a head start in life: she was married off at an early age and was not able to finish her formal education. Today, Florence is not only one of the flourishing farmers in her village but she is also a proud farmer peer educator ... ➤
Restoring land in Latin America shows big potential for climate mitigation
First inventory of restoration projects across Latin America and the Caribbean shows where the potential lies for climate mitigation and provides a compass towards reaching the Bonn Challenge ambitions through forest restoration ... ➤
CIAT will participate in Proficiency Tests from the National Metrology Institute
The Analytical Services Laboratory (LSA, its Spanish initials), which is part of the Agroecosystems and Sustainable Landscapes (ASL) area at CIAT, was listed as eligible for funding to participate in Proficiency Tests carried out by the Colombian National Metrology Institute (INM) ... ➤
Ricardo Hernández: a well-kept secret weapon residing in Vietnam
Ricardo Hernández is a well-kept secret weapon laying in Vietnam office for the war against nutritional deficiencies. As part of the Sustainable Food System team under the Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) in Vietnam, his mission is helps us disassembling to comprehend the biggest and complex ... ➤
Conservation agriculture: enhancing soil fauna richness and abundance in low-input systems: Examples from Kenya
Over the years, many discussions on the benefits of conservation agriculture vis-à-vis conventional tillage have been held. These have mainly focused on the associated soil physical and chemical benefits. However, on most occasions, little attention has focused on the benefits of practicing conservation agriculture for soil health. Indeed, for the ... ➤
Central American countries learn to anticipate the future to plan for climate change
One of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change is learning to get out of its straitjacket and explore its futures, although it still does not know them well ... ➤
Interactive Stories
Newly released interactive infographics show how the so-called “globalized diet” has emerged. They unearth a number of surprises about the foods we eat across the world. Who’d have thought ...
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Five surprising ways people’s diets have changed over the past 50 years
What he’s looking for is something more ancient than the Incas, and potentially more valuable than all their silver and gold ...
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On the trail of ancient treasure in Peru
When many people hear the word cassava, they immediately think of a subsistence crop. Is this really the case? It depends on who you ask ...
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Cassava: Subsistence Crop or Trendy Commodity?
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The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) develops technologies, methods, and knowledge that better enable farmers, mainly smallholders, to enhance eco-efficiency in agriculture. This means we make production more competitive and profitable as well as sustainable and resilient through economically and ecologically sound use of natural resources and purchased inputs.
CIAT is a CGIAR Research Center.
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