By Frank Rijsberman, Chief Executive Officer, CGIAR Consortium Science enables us to perform marvels on this planet. From the first antibiotics to electricity and the X-ray, scientists have been transforming lives for centuries.
Yet for all these discoveries, tonight roughly 800 million people will still go to sleep hungry. There are 2 billion malnourished people on the planet, and 159 million stunted children. And, almost 900 million people are living below the poverty line, surviving on less than $1.90 a day. To rectify this, our global food and farming systems need an overhaul, but our planet is already being stretched to its limits. Climate change threatens to push 100 million people back into poverty, and casts a shadow over our ability to grow the food we need to feed ever-growing populations.
Science is the key to address these urgent challenges, and agri-food systems research is critical to providing enough sustainably sourced, nutritious food for all. Indeed, science has already been a powerful tool in boosting agricultural yields and reducing environmental impact over the last fifty years. Thanks to various technologies, we can produce the same amount of food grown fifty years ago on less than one-third of the land.
CGIAR has partnered with the global agriculture coalition Farming First to share impressive stories of science and innovation in agriculture that are already changing farmers’ lives all over the world: Helping people feed their families, earn a decent income, and look after the natural resources we all rely on.
We must ask ourselves if we are ready and committed to help the world radically transform its collective approaches and strengthen operations to deliver on-the-ground solutions to the planet’s most vulnerable.
Explore these stories below.
Improving management of natural resources
The low-rainfall area of Barmer, Rajasthan, India can remain dry for up to 11 months of the year. CGIAR’s International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has helped women there to organize themselves into self-help groups, and has taught them how to harvest rainwater. With this harvested water, women learned how to keep small agri-horticultural gardens, which they could also use to earn an income. One farmer, Mani Devi, has used the profits from her garden to buy a sewing machine, and is now training women in her family and the rest of the village how to use it.
Getting farmers the information they need
Farming First supporter Shamba Shape Up has developed a mobile-based platform called “iShamba” that enables smallholder farmers in Kenya to access real time agricultural and market price information and expert advice via SMS texts and a call center. The free subscription service provides farmers with market prices for two crops in the two closest markets to them, and a weekly weather forecast, including likely rainfall and agronomy tips aligned to the season in the farmer’s region. This helps them to know exactly when to harvest their crops and which pests and diseases to look out for.
Improving the inputs farmers need
In 2005, a new strain of rust disease devastated lentil fields in Ethiopia and nearly 90 percent of farmers lost their produce. In response, the Ethiopian government and CGIAR’s International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) stepped up efforts to improve legume varieties of lentils, chickpeas, and faba beans. Today, 20 percent of Ethiopian farmers grow improved lentil varieties from ICARDA’s project, and these nutritious, protein-rich legumes are becoming more popular. Apart from boosting yields, these crops are making soils healthier, thanks to their ability to fix nitrogen to the soil.
Boosting farmers’ resilience to disaster
A new initiative pioneered by scientists at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is channeling surplus surface water from flood‐prone rivers to a modified village pond. Brick structures in the pond allow the water to flow swiftly below ground, where they infiltrate the local aquifer. This water can then be pumped back up again during the dry season so that farmers can maintain or intensify their crop production. Putting this into practice will save money on relief and restoration efforts for flood victims and on subsidies for groundwater extraction during the non‐rainy season.
Connecting farmers to market, boosting rural incomes
In the borderlands of Colombia and Ecuador, farmers have been growing exceptional quality coffee beans, but have remained largely disconnected from gourmet coffee markets. Scientists at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) joined forces with Catholic Relief Services to analyze the coffee trade and find out how coffee farmers in the Nariño region could be linked to these more lucrative markets. It was soon discovered that buyers from big coffee brands were purchasing Nariño’s coffee based on sight and not taste. Farmers received a flat rate for any coffee beans that scored above 85 out of 100, even though many, when tasted, could actually reach the high 90s. A “cupping” session was arranged to teach farmers about the rigorous tasting process that could set their coffees apart and help them earn much higher financial rewards. In its first year, the project enabled around 100 farmers to break into the gourmet coffee market. This year they are up to around 550 and that number is likely to rise.