Asia
From observation to action: How Terra-i’s near-real time monitoring of forest cover loss will support conservation efforts in Southeast Asia
The Cambodian government is looking into the possibility of Terra-i as a forest cover change monitoring tool in the country. Terra-i is the only tool that is global in scope and yet can be calibrated according to a country’s specific context. A near-real time monitoring system, Terra-i is able to support immediate ground action by providing information to forest rangers and provincial authorities on the state of the forest, as well as on looming encroachment.
New microbial biotechnology platform launched in Vietnam
The Common Microbial Biotechnology Platform inaugurated on February 1st 2018 in Hanoi, Vietnam, can help your business benefit from interactions between soil microbial communities and crops.
Cooking up a sustainable diet for all
The study of food systems involves investigation of the different activities, processes, infrastructures, and institutions involved in the production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food, and the various links between multiple actors: food producers, food-chain actors, policymakers, and consumers.
Helping build sustainably productive farming systems through the work of the Asian Cassava Breeders, and Forage Legumes, Networks
Researchers from eight Asian countries – Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam – gathered on December 12-13, 2017 in Haikou City, China, to form the Asian Forage Legumes Network. This is in response to the increasing pressure for...
Could messiness be a good thing?
In collaboration with Nguyen Hong Van, this research project sought to understand how Hanoians, especially low-income residents, respond to rapid urban development.
Climate-smart agriculture profiles: A peek into 2050 and what can be done for Asia’s most at-risk countries
The latest CSA profiles offer recommendations on how farmers in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal can adapt to and mitigate climate change.
Sweet deliverance by sweetpotato
Like many of his neighbors, Nguyen Duc Du relied on government food aid when typhoons – which regularly visited Tan Tien village in Quang Binh province – destroyed their rice crops. Except one time, nearly a decade ago, when the valley got flooded and no relief teams could get in. Then they had their stock of boiled and sun-dried sweetpotatoes to thank for tiding them over while waiting for food to be airdropped.
Strength in diversity: How cassava intercropping benefits the crops, the farmer, and the environment
The just-published journal article, On-farm diversity offsets environmental pressures in tropical agro-ecosystems: A synthetic review for cassava-based systems, concludes that intercropping cassava with maize, other crops belonging to the grass family, grain legumes, or trees, provides largely positive effects on various key ecosystem services, and can help strike a balance between farm-level productivity, crop resilience, and environmental health.
Multi-stakeholder efforts blend into one national coffee and climate change strategy in Vietnam
Representatives from both public and private sectors lament that water-related challenges, including those that later affect the quality of coffee, are the biggest threats to Vietnam’s coffee industry, which fulfils approximately 40 percent of global Robusta demand. As if that weren’t bad enough, the industry is facing a new threat related to pests and diseases.
CIAT and ICAR expand partnership addressing challenges to South Asian agriculture
CIAT and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have signed a three-year work plan, kicking off an expanded set of research and capacity building activities between the two organizations.
About CIAT in Asia
Despite the economic miracle that Southeast and East Asia has experienced over the last four decades, a significant proportion of the population living in rural areas and relying on agriculture remain poor. The economic crisis that hit Southeast Asia in the mid-1990s demonstrated the importance of a rural base for much of the population and prompted a much-needed renewal of commitment to improve the conditions of smallholder farmers.
The newly established Common Platform on Microbial Biotechnologies (CPMB) in Hanoi, Vietnam, is investigating the role of soil biota in sustainable cropping systems, and promoting agroecology in the region.
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