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Linking up for a food-secure world

How can we better link food producers and consumers to ensure enough nutritious food for all? An analysis of current trends in market systems and supply chain management.

Securing the future of cocoa

Got a sweet tooth? Here's what Nestlé is doing to ensure the availability of chocolate. A guest commentary from Nestlé USA chairman and CEO Paul Grimwood.

Can USAID Forward support sustainable supply chains?

The U.S. Feed the Future initiative has advanced food security around the globe in the past four years. But it could do more. A guest commentary by Fintrac's Claire Starkey.

Enterprises designed to serve the smallholder farmer

Imagine your life as a smallholder farmer without the resources to improve your lot and that of your family. Here's a solution. A guest commentary by Waktola Wakgari from Ethiopia.

How to fine-tune market systems to advance food security

What can the international community do better to improve the efficiency of market systems meant to feed our planet? ACDI/VOCA's Bronwyn Irwin explains in this video interview.

Don't discount the middleman

To ensure food security around the globe, it's crucial to build the capacity of the local, small and medium-sized enterprises, or the “missing middle,” to provide goods and services that link smallholders with markets, capital and suppliers at the top of the pyramid. A guest commentary by Tetra Tech's Patrick Norrell.

How Africa can help feed the world’s 9 billion people in 2050

Efforts to increase yields, reduce waste and efficiently use land in Africa will be part of the solution as we try feed 9 billion people by 2050. A guest commentary by IGD's Jessica Ernst.

How to design projects that link food security, farming and nutrition

How can development organizations keep up with recent trends to integrate food security, agriculture, and nutrition? We spoke to Fintrac's Kimberly Flowers to find out.

Bricks and ladders: Integrating smallholder farmers into value chains

Transformative investments are needed to produce more food at lower cost. Here's how they should address the plight of smallholder farmers. A guest commentary by ACDI/VOCA's Olaf Kula.

The struggling African farmer recast as enterprising entrepreneur

Let’s take advantage of the opportunities available in agriculture and engage Africa's talented young people in efforts to feed our planet. A guest commentary by Jane Karuku, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

Want to feed Asia? Tackle inefficient supply chains

Food prices in Asia are expected to rise until 2050, in part due to inefficient supply chains. In this video interview, an ADB expert discusses how a structural transformation of the whole distribution process can achieve food security.

Filling the breadbasket: Latin America can help feed the world

Here's how Latin America and the Caribbean can play a critical role in feeding a fast-growing global population. A guest commentary by the Inter-American Development Bank's Ginya Truitt Nakata and the Global Harvest Initiative's Margaret Zeigler.

Food security for global security

What approaches to development need to be strengthened to remove the underlying hardship of food security that often leads to conflict? A guest commentary by Daniel Speckhard, President and CEO of Lutheran World Relief.

Get connected: Bringing business services to agriculture's 'missing middle'

Patrick Norrell, ‎director of the agriculture and economic growth sector at Tetra Tech, speaks to Devex Senior Reporter Michael Igoe about the "missing middle" of agricultural sector development.

Why do the women remain invisible, in spite of their presence?

Women are key to global food security. Here's how we can maximize their potential. A guest commentary by U.N. Women's Venge Nyirongo.

Supply chains can deliver nutrition where health systems can't

Delivering nutrition through the health system is not sufficient to fulfill the needs of all population groups, especially women and children. A Feeding Development guest commentary by Matt Freeman, director of workplace, supply chains and communities at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.

Roger Thurow: Smallholder farmers are the engine of poverty reduction

For too long, we've neglected the role smallholder farmers play in providing food and reducing poverty in the developing world, says Roger Thurow of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs in this video interview for Feeding Development.

What China's shift away from self-sufficiency means for African agriculture

Here's what China, Europe and others should do to expand agricultural investment in Africa. A guest commentary by Hanne Knaepen of the European Centre for Development Policy Management.

Food, population and the post-2015 development agenda

Meeting the growing demand for food may be the world’s single greatest challenge, but it is part of a much larger complex of problems, writes Robert Walker of the Population Institute in this guest commentary.

New technology and 'TRIZ' solutions are key to food security

In a sector that is constantly innovating, Jamey Butcher, executive vice president of Chemonics, explains why first generalizing an agriculture setback — and looking outside a country or even the sector for existing solutions — can lead to innovative solutions in a local context.

Agricultural value chains: A game-changer for small holders

Improving agricultural value chains can really make a difference for small-holder farmers – and thus also for global food security. How? More knowledge from each component of the chain, writes Dr. Roger Norton of The Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture.

Can (Ghana's) cocoa farmers ever emerge from poverty?

Chocolate demand is rising and cocoa prices are at a three-year high, but the majority of farmers growing the crop remain in poverty. How can we turn this around? We take a look at the industry in Ghana.

How the private sector can catalyze innovations for feeding Africa

How can the private sector help help feed 200 million hungry Africans, and still do good business? Through innovative PPPs for smallholder farmers, two agriculture experts argue in a commentary for Feeding Development.

Supply chain sourcing in fragile states: Lessons from Sainsbury in DRC

A challenge grant funded project in the Democratic Republic of Congo has shown skeptics that public monies going to support private companies can work — and well.

Working in agriculture: Don’t let theory obscure complex reality on the ground

There are professionals from a wide range of sectors, including private sector agriculture, working in food security today. Daniel White, associate director of agriculture at ACDI/VOCA, explains the benefits of these varied backgrounds and shares a few trends that might impact careers.

DuPont: Partnering to help small holder farmers is good for business

What's a chemical company like DuPont doing to engage African smallholder farmers in its business on the continent? Devex Impact sat down with Lystra Antoine, DuPont Pioneer's director for agriculture development, to discuss partnerships.

Must Reads

Video

Corporations need to 'see a business model' to serve the poor

Products like Coca Cola and chewing gum are reaching the farthest corners of the world. What new models can deliver foods that improve health and nutrition to the lowest income consumers?
Brief

About the Nestlé Cocoa Plan

The Nestlé Cocoa Plan is focused on improving farmers’ lives, their communities and their crops, and the sourcing of good quality, sustainable cocoa. Get the details on how Nestlé is using accelerated propagation to develop and distribute improved cocoa varieties to farmers, and helping farmers adopt better practices and increase their incomes through its Farmer Field Schools in West Africa.

Video

Potatoes ‘Seed’ Success for Bangladesh Farmers

A Bangladeshi seed company has taught contract farmers smarter agricultural practices, which has turned small investments into big profits. As a result, farmers like Shawkat Ali are transforming family farms into thriving competitive enterprises.

Slideshow

Top 10 #devreads on food security

Food security is a complex issue. It goes far beyond whether someone has access to food and starts at the very beginning of the chain. Where is food grown and how do climate change and urbanization have an impact? Who is growing food and from where is it being sourced? Do people have access not just to a meal, but a healthy and nutritious diet? Check out these 10 #devreads that begin to analyze these critical components to the larger development issue.
Brief

Integrating Food Security and the Value Chain Approach

This briefing paper identifies challenges, solutions, and emerging good practices in using the value chain approach to improve food security. Adopting a food security lens can help value chain practitioners identify the potential impact of activities on food security, develop mitigation strategies for possible negative impacts, and seek strategies that create positive outcomes​.

Video

Nestlé Creating Shared Value – One Day Worldwide

At Nestlé, Creating Shared Value is the approach it takes to its business as a whole. Travel around the world in a typical day at Nestlé, and discover some of the places where the company is delivering toward its commitments.

Brief

The Market Systems Approach in the Agricultural Sector

The market systems approach, which leverages local systems to deliver goods and services, is a cornerstone of Fintrac’s work with the commercial sector to end hunger and poverty. This topic paper shares practical lessons from the field, including that the context and existing local systems capacity dictate which service delivery models will embrace rather than crowd-out local actors.

Video

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Cocoa

Think you’re a cocoa production expert? Test your cocoa IQ and learn about the Nestlé Cocoa Plan – the company’s commitment to improving the lives of cocoa farmers while making the cocoa supply chain more sustainable.

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Cover photo by: ACDI/VOCA