Hanoi, April 2, 2015 - Today, the Asian Institute of Technology and international development partners established a Vietnam Learning Center on Environmental and Social Sustainability to foster knowledge exchange and capacity building relating to environmental and social safeguards and standards in Vietnam. [Read more...]
IFPRI’s 2014-2015 Global Food Policy Report was launched in late March is now available and published online. This flagship report puts into perspective the major food policy issues, developments, and decisions in 2014 and highlights challenges and opportunities for 2015. The first two chapters of the report titled, Food Policy in 2014-2015: Strong Advances and Stubborn Setbacks and Reaching the Missing Middle: Overcoming Hunger and Malnutrition in Middle Income Countries, respectively were translated into French, Russian and Chinese. Russian version of these chapters can be found here – Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.
There is a rapid transformation afoot in the rice value chain in Asia, according to the recent research study. The upstream is changing quickly—farmers are undertaking capital-led intensification and participating in burgeoning markets for land rental, fertilizer and [Read more...]
KATHMANDU, NEPAL - Nepal needs immediate help to rebuild livelihoods after last month’s devastating earthquake but in the longer term, the country must make sure it is more resilient to future disasters, said Bindu N. Lohani, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development. [Read more...]
Originally published on 05/21/2015. Please click the following URL for more info: World Bank website
Hanoi, 21 MAY 2015 – Vietnam needs to strengthen its response to climate change by including strategic investments toward a low-carbon future in its planning and budgeting strategy for coming years, according to a new government report, led by Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and supported by the World Bank and U.N. Development Program (UNDP). [Read more...]
Based on popular demand, summer school for young economists is back this year! In early June, a nine-day applied econometric analysis training course for young researchers will be held at the Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT) in Uzbekistan. Twenty-two applicants have been selected to participate based on their research interests, background, and knowledge and skill level in quantitative methods. [Read more...]
Kyrgyzstan Spatial, the University of Central Asia’s Institute of Public Policy and Administration (UCA IPPA) and International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) interactive online mapping tool and knowledge platform, was recently featured at the top of the list as a cutting-edge technology in Top Solutions That Save Lives in Humanitarian Response and Disaster Relief, a report by Aid and International Development Forum (AIDF). Other languages: Русский язык | Originally published on 05/19/2015.
Please click the following URL for more info: http://www.ucentralasia.org/news.asp?Nid=833
In April 2015, the University of Central Asia’s Institute of Public Policy and Administration in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) launched Kyrgyzstan Spatial, a new online mapping platform.
This blog post is originally published on University of Central Asia website.
The University of Central Asia’s Institute of Public Policy and Administration (UCA IPPA) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) launched a new online platform on 2 April 2015 that will help policy makers target areas of the country most vulnerable to food insecurity. [Read more...]
This article was originally published on IFPRI South Asia website.
Eighty percent of the population in Nepal lives in rural areas and depends heavily on agriculture as a source of income and employment. With changing monsoon patterns, and the effect of drought and floods in various regions, the impact of climate change is visible in the agricultural food chain. Consequently, ensuring food security and farmers’ effective adaption to climate change is a major challenge for the policy makers.
The infrastructure sector has seen
unprecedented changes in India with exponential growth due
to changing economic landscape and development in the
country. [Read more...]
Hunger and malnutrition are not problems exclusive to low income countries. Middle income countries (MICs), despite some being global economic powerhouses, are home to the majority of the world’s hungry and malnourished, according to the latest Global Food Policy Report.
MICs around the world, especially in Asia, are still challenged with reducing hunger and malnutrition to achieve sustainable economic growth. Close to half of the world’s hungry, or 363 million people, live in China, India and Indonesia. Undernutrition, the result of prolonged inadequate intake of macro- and micronutrients, is also widespread.
ReSAKSS-Asia recently released a new series of papers on seed, fertilizer and agricultural input policies in Asia. The policy note series reveals the evolution of agricultural input policies in Asia, and it presents a comprehensive picture of the seed and fertilizer industries in a wide range of Asian countries, including Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The following story by IFPRI senior research assistant Vijay Nazareth was originally published on the IFPRI South Asia blog.
Think of what might happen in India’s risk-prone eastern states, such as Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha, if the country’s leading companies saw opportunities to invest in agriculture. Think of how innovative, low-cost technologies for planting, input management, harvesting, and post-harvest loss protection might improve productivity and resilience to climate change. Think of how smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and India’s food security would improve. Think of that potential and ask yourself why it isn’t happening as quickly as we want and which ideas could make it a reality.
The Asian experience with agricultural mechanization has been marked with major successes over the past four decades. Farm mechanization has recently emerged in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) despite limited experiences in the past. Exchanging different regional experiences on how mechanization has evolved, especially in Asian countries, can help identify alternative approaches and design effective mechanization policies in Ghana and elsewhere in SSA. [Read more...]
Most of world’s poor live in rural areas inadequately equipped with energy with power outages or fuel shortages common. Energy is central to irrigation, transportation, and all sustainable development efforts in developing countries. Without addressing energy, food security and poverty reduction are hard to achieve. However, there has been little research on linkages between energy, transformation, and poverty in developing countries. [Read more...]
A new regional strategy calls for modernization and transformation of the rice sector in Asia
Asian countries are undergoing structural transformation; the economy is shifting from agriculture to non-agriculture sectors, and laborers are migrating from rural areas to cities. Asia’s economic future depends on its ability to successfully fast-track structural transformation through policy that facilitates job creation and opens up new sectors and markets, according to Asian Development Bank. What does this mean for agriculture? As the sector with the lowest productivity, that still engages over 43 percent of Asia’s total employment, agriculture is also likely to undergo a transformation to a system that requires fewer farmers and greater mechanization, increased yields per unit area, larger farm sizes, , and improved value chain integration, among others. [Read more...]
