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Agriculture and Food Security
Reducing poverty and improving food security through small-scale agriculture
 
With more than 1 billion undernourished people, the world faces critical food challenges—rising costs, extreme price fluctuations, and food demand that’s expected to double within 40 years.
 
IDRC works to enhance food security through small-scale farming and environmentally sustainable food production. To achieve that goal, we support research that will:
  • increase yields and incomes from small-scale farming
  • provide food to meet the needs of rural and urban consumers
  • ensure more equitable food distribution to the world’s poorest
Our work focuses on innovation, technological improvements, and better agri-food policies that will promote sustainability and be truly effective, now and for future generations.

Read the program prospectus in English or French.

Latest Project

Improving the Nutrition and Health of CARICOM Populations (CIFSRF)

In the Caribbean, malnutrition is increasingly taking the form of over-nutrition and the prevalence of obesity is on the rise. Caribbean countries have a long history of reliance on exports of plantat

Latest Result

Innovations can change lives in rural Latin America

Innovations stemming from the imaginative combination of local knowledge and science can stimulate development in impoverished rural settings in Latin America. Yet, their impact is often localized and little is known about these innovations. For...


News

Canada's PM announces next phase of research initiative to combat hunger in developing countries

02/11/2011

On October 29, 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced support for the second phase of the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF), which will help alleviate hunger in developing countries. CIFSRF is a collaboration between...

Former IDRC recipient awarded world’s largest prize for environmentalists

22/04/2010

Former IDRC recipient Humberto Ríos Labrada has won the prestigious Goldman Global Environmental Prize for 2010. Ríos was honoured for his work with Cuban farmers to increase crop diversity and develop low-input agricultural systems. His aim is to...

Featured Publication

INTEGRATED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF EASTERN AFRICA <br>From Concept to Practice

INTEGRATED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF EASTERN AFRICA
From Concept to Practice

This book documents a decade of research, methodological innovation, and lessons learned in an eco-regional research-for-development program operating in the eastern African highlands, the African Highlands Initiative (AHI). It does this through...

Events

"Can agriculture help improve global nutrition and health?” with development economist Rachel Nugent

24/01/2012

In many developing countries, under- and over-nutrition coexist, leading to diet-related chronic diseases. Combined with high rates of infectious diseases, these pose “double-burdens” in health. As development economist Rachel Nugent argues, the...

Global Conference: Risks and Threats to Food Security

04/10/2011

Event: Fourth McGill Conference on Global Food Security Location: McGill University, Montreal, Canada Dates: October 4-6, 2011  This annual Conference brings people together to discuss major issues that affect food security around the globe...

Latest Results

Innovations stemming from the imaginative combination of local knowledge and science can stimulate development in impoverished rural settings in Latin America. Yet, their impact is often localized and little is known about these innovations. For...

Latest Results

It is widely acknowledged that INRM is a means of achieving the CGIAR’s multiple goals of food security, poverty alleviation, and protection of the natural environment. The CGIAR has defined INRM as "a way of doing development-oriented research...

Latest Results

These case studies illustrate some of the work IDRC's Rural Poverty and Environment program has supported in Africa and the Middle East. Topics covered include the African Highland Initiative; transboundary water research in the Middle East; Isang...
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IDRC funds researchers in the developing world so they can build healthier, more prosperous societies
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