All Stories
New development partnership brings much-needed investment for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon
A new, first of its kind impact investment was launched 7 November to bring much-needed financial support for sustainable development in the Brazilian Amazon. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), as a cornerstone investor in the Althelia Biodiversity Fund Brazil (ABF), sees this as a unique opportunity to support new economic models that promote biodiversity while using its core expertise to evaluate, understand, and share the learning that this model generates, globally. It is novel in many respects.
Agriculture AI Brain
The Inter-American Development Bank, through its innovation lab – IDB Lab, approved US$2 million funding for a project that will improve the productivity and sustainability of rice farming in Colombia.
The Champion who created an App to identify banana diseases
Michael Selvaraj is the leader of the Phenomics Platform team from the Agrobiodiversity Area at CIAT. He is a Champion, because he developed the smartphone App Tumaini, which makes it possible to identify five diseases and one pest affecting banana plants.
Ugandans and Kenyans in cities happy to pay for food that is more nutritious
Malnutrition remains a serious problem for many people in East Africa. Poor consumers are willing to pay a premium for healthier foods, pointing to a new strategy for improving nutrition at a large scale
Fighting hunger through the mapping of key food systems indicators in the 1000 poorest communes of Vietnam
The EATS and CIAT have started to gather, synthesize and make accessible existing food system data on the poorest communes to the Zero Hunger agency. The final result from the synthesis is a website where users can see maps of key food systems indicators in the provinces of the poorest communes. These indicators are divided into three main areas: global drivers, food supply processes and health and nutrition outcomes.
Sharing new approaches to bring together gender, youth, nutrition and climate
Representatives from farmer’s organisations from southern African countries, from the Government of Mali and Ethiopia, IFAD project staff and donors recently participated in a one-week learning journey in Ethiopia, focused on transformative approaches to mainstream climate, gender, nutrition and youth. The purpose of the journey, organised by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and IFAD, was to learn and exchange on challenges and best practices to promote transformation approaches on mainstreaming climate change, gender, youth and nutrition into programming, as well as witness examples of rural transformation in Ethiopia.
Artificial intelligence and farmer knowledge boost smallholder maize yields
Data-driven agriculture can boost smallholder production threatened by weather and climate change, but data scientists need to work with farmers and governments. Four years of collaboration in Colombian maize fields shows what success looks like
Sara Rankin, the researcher from Cali who promotes urban agriculture as more than just producing food
Sara Rankin was born in Cali and she is a researcher from the Sustainable Food Systems team at CIAT. This Champion has worked towards understanding the food system in Cali to develop a municipal public policy on food safety and sovereignty that meets the specific needs of this territory, among other goals. In this process, she has been able to meet one of the hidden pearls of the food initiatives in Cali: urban orchards, which are increasingly popular.
To improve nutrition for the poorest consumers, try a market-based approach
Uganda’s newest health food craze began in the slums of Kampala. It started when a handful of women tried an unusual porridge, which is made from five grains grown in nearby hillsides, instead of their normal porridge, which is typically made from a single main ingredient like maize. Soon they began selling the new product door-to-door. Nutreal Limited, the local company that produces the porridge flour is now rushing to keep pace with demand.
Our Actions are our future
In his World Food Day blog, Juan Lucas Restrepo, Director General of Bioversity International and CEO-Designate of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, explains why systems thinking is key to fixing the food system and introduces a new strategy for accelerated change at the nexus of food, agriculture, health and the environment.