article
Unsustainable food systems: can we reverse current trends?
The impact of global crises underscores the fragility of food systems. In addition to short-term acute shocks, long-term global demographic changes like urbanization and population growth may be obstacles to improving food system sustainability.
As rural masses migrate to urban areas, populations grow, and people work toward better living standards,…
article
Now reading: vulnerability mapping for forest conservation and restoration
A new article presents a vulnerability mapping model turned online tool, that contributes to science-based planning for forest restoration and conservation.
Over the last two decades, forest conservation and restoration has emerged as one of the leading science-based efforts to mitigate human pressures on the earth’s ecosystems.…
article
Growing for the future: a new book on school gardens
75 contributors pooled their experiences for the book “Agrobiodiversity, school gardens and healthy diets”. Case studies from around the world illustrate how school gardens empower future generations to make food choices that nurture the environment and human health.
By: Danny Hunter, Eliot Gee, Nina Olsen Lauridsen
“With new worries…
article
Cool beans: A vertical crop fit for Africa's changing climate and nutritional gaps
By 2030, higher temperatures and droughts may cut common bean production by 3-5% in Africa. Farmers can adapt by switching to climbing varieties of this key crop in the Great African Lakes region, parts of Ethiopia, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Rwanda.
Growing more climbing beans, as opposed to lower-yield bush beans, could help…
article
An Alliance for Trees: Why forest biodiversity is "too precious to lose"
From forest fires to COVID-19, this year has already presented grave challenges to human and planetary health. Now more than ever, forests have an essential role to play. On the International Day of Forests, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT outlines our research approaches to ensure better…
article
Text mining: a new way to measure agrobiodiversity commitments
We interviewed Sarah Jones, Roseline Remans and Natalia Estrada-Carmona from the Agrobiodiversity Index team, who recently published a study on how text mining can be used to measure commitments towards conservation and use agrobiodiversity.
The new draft Global Biodiversity Framework, which will be adopted in October at the 2020 UN…
article
Researchers build the go-to dataset for smallholder farms
Farmer input is essential to tackling global challenges of climate change, rural poverty and nutrition. A new data collection tool aims to build the biggest open-access dataset of its kind for development and research.
Top-down projects for improving the lives of poor farmers were often unsuccessful because they didn't systematically consider the…
publication
Mycorrhiza project
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/82412
Publication year
1981
Authors
International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Full Citation
Mycorrhiza project . 1981. In: Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical. Cassava Program: Annual Report 1984 . CIAT, Cali, CO. p. 79-97. (Working document no. 1)
Publication…
article
Female empowerment for the future of cacao
In Peru, the Fine Flavor Cacao project is securing the next generation of cacao farmers by highlighting the role of women throughout production.
Most scholars pinpoint cacao’s origins to the rich landscapes of the Amazon: where the jungle nestles into the Andean foothills in Peru lies an abundance of native cacao diversity. Several of these Peruvian cacao varietals…
article
Alliance's Colombia genebank hits conservation target with shipment to Svalbard
The CGIAR genebank in Cali, Colombia, reached a conservation milestone in February with a shipment of safety duplicates of bean accessions to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
25 February, Svalbard Islands, Norway – The crates that arrived at the Global Seed Vault from Colombia were part of a record number of…
article
African researchers of beans, the superfood of the future, win Al-Sumait Prize
On World Pulses Day, the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) received the prestigious Al-Sumait Prize Award in recognition of its role in bean research for food, nutrition and income security for smallholder farmers in Africa.
10 FEBRUARY, KUWAIT – Africa's development relies heavily on agriculture, and beans are a…
article
Ushauri: agricultural advice is just a phone call away
Researchers explain how user-centered design produced a mobile platform (named 'Advice' in Swahili) that matches agricultural extension services with farmers' knowledge needs.
Can mobile phones democratize agricultural extension?
The mobile phone revolution has brought tremendous opportunities: with decreasing costs for devices and…
article
An underground wood wide web for environmental health and productive landscapes
An interdisciplinary research team reports on how an underground network of tiny mycorrhizal fungi provides valuable ecosystem services.
Right under our feet, hidden from our eyes, is a ubiquitous, bustling and persistent market economy which operates at the interface between plants and soil and which dates back to the time…
article
Godavari Basin: Agriculture facing up to Anthropocene challenges
Agriculture in the Anthropocene faces radically distinct challenges from previous decades, including significantly increasing production of food for healthy diets within planetary boundaries.
Central India's Godavari Basin represents a complex microcosm of this challenge, requiring novel approaches to agricultural research for development that…
article
Empowering communities to use agrobiodiversity for nutritious diets
In a new GIZ-funded project in Kenya and Ethiopia, communities will develop their own action plans to improve nutrition and diet diversity with support from Bioversity International and partners.
Hunger and malnutrition can create a variety of health problems. The long-term consequences of these conditions can be detrimental to the health and…