International Food Policy Research Institute

About: International Food Policy Research Institute is a nonprofit organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Agriculture & Food security. The organization has 1217 authors who have published 4952 publications receiving 218436 citations.

Dietary Intakes and Socioeconomic Factors Are Associated with the Hemoglobin Concentration of Bangladeshi Women

Abstract: Iron deficiency anemia affects a large number of women in developing countries, especially during child-bearing years. The hemoglobin concentration is useful for identifying iron deficiency anemia. The main objectives of this study were, first, to extend algorithms for calculating bioavailable iron from mixed diets, taking into account the enhancers and inhibitors of iron absorption under alternative assumptions on body iron stores. Second, a comprehensive longitudinal model was developed for the proximate determinants of hemoglobin concentration that included the subjects' dietary intakes, nutritional status, morbidity and socioeconomic factors and the unobserved between-subject differences. The model for hemoglobin concentration was estimated using three repeated observations on 514 free living women in Bangladesh. Socioeconomic factors affecting the iron intake from meat, fish and poultry and from all animal sources were also modeled. The main results were that bioavailable iron, women's height and mid upper arm circumference and intake of iron tablets were significant predictors of hemoglobin concentration. Increases in household incomes were associated with higher intake of iron from meat, fish and poultry and from all animal sources. The algorithms for estimating bioavailable iron showed the importance of assumptions regarding body iron stores and underscored the need to develop suitable algorithms for subjects in developing countries.

The Impacts of Biofuel Targets on Land-Use Change and Food Supply: A Global CGE Assessment

Abstract: This study analyzes the long-term impacts of large-scale expansion of biofuels on land-use change, food supply and prices, and the overall economy in various countries or regions using a global computable general equilibrium model, augmented by a land-use module and detailed representation of biofuel sectors. The study finds that an expansion of global biofuel production to meet currently articulated or even higher national targets in various countries for biofuel use would reduce gross domestic product at the global level; however, the gross domestic product impacts are mixed across countries or regions. The expansion of biofuels would cause significant land re-allocation with notable decreases in forest and pasture lands in a few countries. The results also suggest that the expansion of biofuels would cause a reduction in food supply. Although the magnitude of the impact on food supply at the global level is not as large as perceived earlier, it would be significant in developing countries like India and those in Sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural commodities such as sugar, corn, and oil seeds, which serve as the main biofuel feedstocks, would experience significant increases in their prices in 2020 compared with the prices at baseline due to the expansion of biofuels to meet the existing targets.

Politics, Plurality and Problemsheds: A Strategic Approach for Reform of Agricultural Water Resources Management

Abstract: Starting from the assessment that past efforts at reform in agricultural water management in developing countries have achieved very little, this article argues that a fundamental change is required in the approach to policy and institutional transformation if the present deadlock in the internalisation of ecological sustainability, human development/poverty alleviation and democratic governance into the ‘core business’ of water bureaucracies is to be overcome. ‘Social engineering’ approaches need to be replaced by ‘strategic action’ approaches that acknowledge the inherently political character and the plurality of actors, institutions and objectives of water management — a perspective operationalised here around the notions of ‘problemshed’ and ‘issue network’.

Financing Agricultural R&D in Rich Countries: What's Happening and Why

Abstract: Governments everywhere are trimming their support for agricultural R&D, giving greater scrutiny to the support that they do provide, and reforming the public agencies that fund, oversee, and carry out the research. This represents a break from previous patterns, which had consisted of expansion in the public funds for agricultural R&D. Private-sector spending on agricultural research has slowed along with the growth of public spending in recent years, but the balance continues to shift towards the private sector. This article presents a quantitative review of these funding trends and the considerable institutional changes that have accompanied them. We discuss new data for 22 OECD countries, providing institutional details for five of these countries, and conclude with an assessment of policy developments.

A framework for assessing irrigation performance

Abstract: A comprehensive framework for conceptualizing irrigation performance is presented which, by clarifying relationships among the many incommensurate approaches to performance assessments, can provide the basis for more systematic comparative assessments of irrigation. Irrigation systems are carefully defined, and their relationships to broader agricultural and socioeconomic systems specified in terms both of goals and of inputs and outputs. Goals are seen as crucial to performance assessments, and the existence of many sometimes conflicting goals requires both specification of whose goals are being considered and clarification as to whether the goals are related to inputs, to outputs or to efficiency. Assessments can be categorized according to their purpose, with significant differences among those that monitor operational performance, those that facilitate interventions to improve performance, and those that promote accountability within an operating agency. Assessments also differ in the types of performance measures used. Three distinct categories of performance measures are identified: process measures, which relate to a system's internal operations; output measures, which focus on a system's final output; and impact measures, which pertain to the effects that the system's outputs induce in its larger environment. Performance measures are distinguished from performance standards which may be established from a variety of sources.