Agricultural innovation | TableDebates

Future farms need homegrown science

This article by the CGIAR’s Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) programme, discusses a new paper that evaluates the impact of investments in agricultural research capacity and research and development (R&D) on adaptation and mitigation. It argues that when it comes to improving the resilience of crops to climate change, local innovation needs to go hand in hand with more external funding aimed at improving agricultural research capacity.

WRAP report: Food futures – from business as usual to business unusual

This report, Food Futures, by the UK’s waste agency WRAP, looks at a broad range of food sustainability challenges for the future and at possible solutions.

Report says food industry needs to utilise new technology to meet intertwined population and food challenge

The food and agriculture (F&A) industry must increase production, availability and access to food significantly over the next ten years if it is to meet the demands of a larger, increasingly urban global population according to a new report presented by Rabobank at Expo Milano 2015.

Improving agriculture and nutrition with open data

This report argues that open data can be a powerful tool to solve problems around the world in agriculture and nutrition: from drought, pests and diseases, to food security and food safety.

Someone removes a plant from an aquaponics system. Photo by Gabriella Clara Marino via Unsplash.

Integrated agriculture and aquaculture: an option to mitigate climate change?

In this piece, Miguel F. Astudillo and co-authors of the work presented share insight into aquaculture-agriculture integration based on findings in a recent paper published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. Miguel is a former member of the Oxford Silk Group (University of Oxford) and has been a member of the FCRN since 2011. He is currently pursuing a PhD in consequential life cycle assessment at the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec).

IIED briefing: Sustainable intensification revisited

Sustainable intensification is receiving growing attention as a way to address the challenge of feeding an increasingly populous and resource-constrained world. But are we asking too much of it? Nearly 20 years after the concept was developed, this briefing revisits the term and asks what sustainable intensification is — a useful guiding framework for raising agricultural productivity on existing arable land in a sustainable manner; and what it is not -a paradigm for achieving food security overall.

IFPRI’s 2014–2015 Global Food Policy Report

In this report IFPRI describes the major food policy issues, developments, and decisions of 2014 and highlights challenges and opportunities for 2015.

Meeting the Global Food Demand of the Future by Engineering Crop Photosynthesis and Yield Potential

A paper published in the journal Cell argues that the current rate of increase in crop yields is insufficient to meet business-as-usual anticipated growth in demand for food (it cites one projection that the world will need 85% more primary foodstuffs by 2050, relative to 2013).

Aisle of vertical tomato farm. Photo by Markus Spiske via Unsplash.

Feeding Cities - with Indoor Vertical Farms?

In this piece, FCRN member Mike Hamm critically considers the environmental sustainability of vertical- and indoor farming. In particular, he explores and challenges claims that fully indoor production systems can provide a significant source of food for urban areas at low carbon cost. Ultimately, he argues that there are a number of other urban and peri-urban food growing options that offer greater potential, and deserve more policy attention and support.Michael W. Hamm is a C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University and Director of the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems. Mike is also a Visiting Fellow of Mansfield College and the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, and an FCRN network member.