Key Topics

The Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research are multi-disciplinary research and training programs that seek innovative solutions to food security, health, agricultural growth, trade expansion and sustainable use of natural resources in the developing world. The Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research seek to address not only the critical research questions in its area of expertise but also the cross-cutting topics of climate change, gender, food security, nutrition, and capacity building.

Capacity Building
Educating students by supporting their long-term degree programs and offering short-term training to farmers, fishers, herders, and even policy makers are central objectives for the Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research. Thousands of students have received degrees since the CRSP programs started in the late 1970s. As graduates,... Learn More »
Recent Small Ruminant Collaborative Research Support Program Training Report 1978-1994 View All »
Climate Change
The countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean will experience severe impacts of climate change, more than other world regions. They are also less well-positioned to cope with the expected stresses according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. While the specifics of these impacts are difficult... Learn More »
Recent Genetic improvement of cowpea to overcome drought and biotic constraints to grain productivity View All »
Food Security
Almost one billion people suffer from chronic hunger worldwide. Each year, it is estimated that more than 3.5 million children die from undernutrition. Alleviating these conditions makes the achievement of food security a primary goal of agricultural development. The elements of food security are three: availability, access, and utilization. Feed... Learn More »
Recent Utilisation des produits vegetaux (Azadirachta indica. Juss et Ocimum basilicum Sims) et locauz (savon) dans la protection du niebe (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) View All »
Gender
Attention to reducing gender disparities in agriculture has reemerged as a critical component of agricultural programs in recent years in response to the world food price crisis of 2007-2008. Those events highlighted how the persistence of gender disparities in access to productive assets place women agriculturalists in difficult and precarious... Learn More »
Recent Gender and Soil Fertility in Africa View All »
Health and Nutrition
Health issues are a central theme in Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research research, both human and animal. Nutrition, for example, along with food science, and veterinary medicine, are explicitly mentioned in the Title XII legislation’s definition of agriculture that authorizes the collaborative research support programs. For the... Learn More »
Recent The Magnitude of Memory Loss in Recall Morbidity Data View All »
Innovation
Innovative technologies leapfrog over intermediate technologies, or create ‘disruptive’ ones, distinctively different in concept or outcome from earlier approaches. This innovation plays a key role in enhancing productivity and economic growth and development outcomes by changing the way business is conducted. Agricultural innovation seeks to identify new approaches in the... Learn More »
Recent Registration of Pinto Bean Germplasm Lines ABCP-8 with Resistance to Common Bacterial Blight View All »
Markets
Today’s agricultural markets involve a wide range of actors operating at local, regional, and global levels. The chance to link to these markets successfully offers smallholder and other producers the opportunity to increase and diversify their incomes. Yet, navigating the complex requirements to access these dynamic markets can be difficult... Learn More »
Recent Industry Practices and Technical Constraints in the Post-Harvest Handling, Processing and Marketing of Peanut and Peanut-Based Products View All »
Natural Resource Management
Long-term, sustainable agricultural development will depend on conservation-oriented natural resource management. These resources include land and soil, water, plants, and animals. Although the details of natural resource management (NRM) and their application to agricultural challenges may depend on science, it is also the case that economic and social policies have... Learn More »
Recent Technical note: A low-cost pressure regulator for improving the water distribution uniformity of a microtube-type drip irrigation system View All »
Policy
The agriculture sector is shaped by laws, policies, and norms that can support or hinder the production and flow of goods and services. To create policies that lead to “enabling environments” benefiting all actors in the agricultural sector, policymakers must consider evidence from policy impacts and models. Agricultural policy analyses... Learn More »
Recent NRM Processes and Pathways for Effective Local Governance View All »
Productivity
Productivity is defined as increasing output per unit of input. In agriculture, there are a variety of ways that productivity is discussed and measured, with much debate about the relative costs and benefits of achieving greater productivity. Productivity per plant or animal can be gained by increasing yields, for example,... Learn More »
Recent Communications 1978-1987 View All »