This open access book by Prabhu Pingali, Anaka Aiyar, Mathew Abraham and Andaleeb Rahman uses a food systems lens to explore issues of food security in India and to set policy goals for 2030 and 2050.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has released the report “Transforming the livestock sector through the Sustainable Development Goals”, which examines how the livestock sector interacts with each of the Sustainable Development Goals, including synergies, trade-offs and complex interlinkages.

The report “Transformation is feasible - How to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals within Planetary Boundaries”, produced by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, identifies five measures to reach the most Sustainable Development Goals within the planetary boundaries.

FCRN member Ken Giller has co-authored a paper that reviews the targets and indicators used to measure the second sustainable development goal (SDG-2), i.e. the pursuit of global food security and agricultural sustainability. The paper concludes that the UN’s current set of targets and indicators for SDG-2 are not universally applicable, and proposes a revised set of indicators.

The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council has passed a resolution concluding the UN Declaration for the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. The Declaration will be used to influence national policies on food, agriculture, seeds and land, while keeping in mind the interests of rural food producers - if, that is, the Declaration is adopted by all UN Member States after a vote in November.

This book, by Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, examines peasants and peasant farming, particularly how globalisation creates new forms of peasantry.

The book “Innovation Processes in Agro-Ecological Transitions in Developing Countries”, edited by Ludovic Temple and Eveline M. F. W. Compaore Sawadogo, examines different ways in which innovation can happen in agricultural systems. Topics include financial support for biofuels research, adoption of new technology from large farms and biotechnological cotton.

Over two billion people in developing countries are smallholder farmers and often depend on pollinators, according to this report by the UK Collaborative on Development Sciences. The report finds that insufficient pollination has already been found across many crops in the developing world, which could negatively affect cash crops (such as coffee and cocoa) and intake of nutritious foods such as fruit and nuts. The report points to a lack of data on pollinators in developing countries, and calls for further research, education programmes and sustainable development projects incorporating bee-keeping.

The Cities & climate change science conference event was held in Edmonton, Alberta on 5-7 March. Recordings of some of the sessions are available here.