News & Events

An IFAD co-sponsored event at COP25 in Madrid brought together experts and celebrity chefs to examine how climate change is affecting food systems. Organised by IFAD’s partner, Kitchen Connection, the event featured Spanish MasterChef winner and ex-Real Madrid footballer Jorge Brazalez, and one of Spain’s top chefs and TV presenters, Pepa Muñoz.

Current food systems are at a crossroads. There is a strong need for transforming food production and consumption patterns in a sustainable way. One where farmers adapt and build resilience to the increasing challenges from climate change and where nutritious food is available for all. Agroecology provides one solution towards this transformation.

Phytochrome B (phyB) is the predominant red light photoreceptor that transduces red light signals to downstream signaling. On red light exposure, photoactivated phyB interacts with a transcription factor termed PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 3 (PIF3), a repressor of red light signaling, triggering its rapid phosphorylation and subsequent degradation. Thus, phyB-PIF3 defines a critical regulatory hub for red light-mediated seedling development.

A new approach is needed to help reduce undernutrition and obesity at the same time, as the issues become increasingly connected due to rapid changes in countries’ food systems. This is especially important in low- and middle-income countries, according to a new four-paper report published in The Lancet.

The number of cholera cases decreased globally by 60% in 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in a report that points to an encouraging trend in cholera prevention and control in the world’s major cholera hotspots, including Haiti, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Soybean plants are sensitive to the effects of abiotic stress and belong to the group of crops that are less drought and salt tolerant. The identification of genes involved in mechanisms targeted to cope with water shortage is an essential and indispensable task for improving the drought and salt tolerance of soybean. One of the approaches for obtaining lines with increased tolerance is genetic modification.

The United Nations has declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH). The year is a once in a lifetime opportunity to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment, and boost economic development.

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) are essential to sustainable agriculture and food security.  They are the raw materials to meet the current and future needs of crop improvement and adaptation programmes. It is therefore very important to conserve and sustainably use them.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level in eukaryotes. In rice, MIR7695 expression is regulated by infection with the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae with subsequent down-regulation of an alternatively spliced transcript of natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 6 (OsNramp6). NRAMP6 functions as an iron transporter in rice.

Capitalizing on genomics, phenomics, and biotechnological disciplines we aim to fast-track breeding progress through big data-driven analytical techniques. We facilitate the adoption of the best technologies related to agronomy and agri-food science components in order to improve rice products and byproducts. We aim to strengthen partnerships, technology transfer, and capacity building for rice-based research-driven innovation.

This research program is focused on advancing the environmental sustainability of the rice-based system through transformative and multidisciplinary research and approaches. Focusing on the five core domains – Air & Climate, Water, Energy, Soil health, and Biodiversity & Pest ecology – this theme works on  improving the productivity and income from rice-based systems while minimizing the environmental footprints.

In order to determine whether the current low productivity associated with rainfed cultivation on degraded soils in Ghana can be improved by biochar amendment and irrigation, field experiments with maize were conducted over two seasons in 2017 and 2018. Rice straw biochar at rates of 0 t/ha (B₀), 15 t/ha (B₁₅) and 30 t/ha (B₃₀) was combined with irrigation regimes of full irrigation (I₁₀₀), deficit irrigation (I₆₀) and no irrigation (I₀). The I₁₀₀ treatment was irrigated to field capacity every 3–4 days according to time domain reflectometry measurements while the I₆₀ treatment received 60% of the irrigation amount given to I₁₀₀ but with the same irrigation frequency.