This programme will focus on how agriculture can deliver better nutrition outcomes by developing evidence-based policy options and tools for businesses, governments, NGOs and donors. More details

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) hosted by the Columbia University Earth Institute is a major international effort to assess the state of global agricultural modeling and to understand climate impacts on the agricultural sector. AgMIP's mission is to improve substantially the characterization of world food security as affected by climate variability and change, and to enhance adaptation capacity in both developing and developed countries. As part of this initiative, the global economic modeling component of AgMIP is engaging ten leading global agricultural models from around the world in a cross-model scenario comparison exercise. The focus of the comparative analysis is on long-run model projections for the evolution of the global food system towards 2050 under a specified common set of exogenous drivers of change for a standardized set of regions and variables. Dirk Willenbockel supports IFPRI and the OECD in the organisation and coordination of the exercise by contributing to scenario specifications and protocols, data handling software development, liaising with the modelling teams and analyzing the results. More details

Modern agricultural biotechnology has profound implications for global and local agricultural and food systems, and for the livelihoods of farmers in the developed and developing worlds. The actual consequences will depend on the pathways along which the technology is developed and applied in practice. More details

There is a new and widespread commitment within the development community to invest in agriculture as a way of reducing poverty and hunger. Three quarters of the one billion people surviving on less than $1 a day live and work in rural areas, and most rely on agriculture for their food and income. Investing in agriculture is key to lifting the world's poor out of hunger and poverty. More details

The project's objective is to collect and analyse new data on non-tariff measures, particularly on governmental standards and regulations that prescribe the conditions for importing agri-food products into the EU market and into the markets of the main competing players. More details

The project investigated the ways in which local political organisation, interest group power, and institutional proclivities and capacities shape the reform initiatives that are most likely to be successful. More details

Assessing current livelihood strategies and options available to vulnerable communities living in Darfur. More details

The aim of this project has been to explore the dynamics of crop-livestock integration in contrasting agroecological settings in Africa through an analysis of the institutions which mediate change. More details

IDS is coordinating a programme of work based on the belief that global eradication of famine is achievable in the foreseeable future. The ultimate objective of this policy-oriented research is to contribute to a new policy agenda for famine prevention. More details

The Foresight project Global Food and Farming Futures explores the increasing pressures on the global food system between now and 2050. The Report highlights the decisions that policy makers need to take today, and in the years ahead, to ensure that a global population rising to nine billion or more can be fed sustainably and equitably. More details