Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Successes in Ag Development

IFPRI has a new publication out entitled Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development, available for free download. It includes 20 chapters, "each one based on a synthesis of peer-reviewed literature, along with other relevant knowledge, that documents an intervention’s impact on hunger and malnutrition and the pathways to food security. Each study brings the evidence together, examines the rigor with which the evidence was generated, and assesses the pros and cons of each success." The book itself has also been peer reviewed.

The successes it lists include (by subject)

Increased production:
The Green Revolution in Asia
Improved maize in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
Rice production in Bangladesh
Hybrid rice production in China
Pearl millet and sorghum in India
Mungbean in Asia
Smallholder dairy in India (also change in institutions)
Aquaculture for smallholders - Tilapia in the Philippines
Homestead food production in Bangladesh to diversify diets (micronutrient deficiencies)

Environmental sustainability:
Community Forestry in Nepal
Re-Greening the Sahel: farmer-led innovation in Burkina Faso and Niger
Zero-tillage soybeans in Argentina
Zero-tillage rice-wheat in the Indo-Gangetic Plains

Institutional reforms:
Cotton reforms in Burkina Faso (gradual liberalization)
Unlocking the market: Fertilizer and maize in Kenya (market liberalization)
Land-tenure reform in China and in Vietnam (2 chapters)

Reduced pests:
International collaboration to contain wheat rusts
Pest resistant cassava in Africa
Eridcating rinderpest (Cattle)

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