Browsing by Author "Steensland, Ann"
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- 2019 Global Agricultural Productivity Report: Productivity Growth for Sustainable Diets and MoreSteensland, Ann (Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Global Programs, 2019-10-16)The world must sustainably produce food, feed, fiber, and bio-energy for nearly 10 billion people in 2050. Using publicly-available data and peer-reviewed analysis, the 2019 Global Agricultural Productivity Report puts agricultural productivity growth at the heart of a global strategy for achieving sustainable diets, and more.
- 2020 Global Agricultural Productivity Report: Productivity in a Time of PandemicsSteensland, Ann; Thompson, Thomas L. (Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Global Programs, 2020-10-12)Agricultural communities battle pandemic-scale pest and disease outbreaks every year. The health and productivity of people, livestock, and crops are all vulnerable. Food and nutrition security, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability are all threatened by these outbreaks. The Global Agricultural Productivity Report lays out some of pandemic scale threats that must be addressed to ensure that we can sustainably produce food, feed, fiber, and bioenergy for 10 billion people in 2050. Agricultural productivity is not just essential for sustainably meeting the demands of a growing world. The technologies and practices that increase productivity can also be harnessed to cultivate resilience, especially to pandemics that can strike with little warning, with catastrophic results.
- 2021 GAP Report Launch: Strengthening the Climate For Sustainable Agricultural GrowthSteensland, Ann (Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 2021-10-20)During the launch of the 2021 Global Agricultural Productivity Report (GAP Report), the newest data on agricultural productivity across the globe was revealed to be well below the Global Agricultural Productivity Index target. Through a solution-oriented discussion, experts across the globe discuss what we can do now to address the looming crisis.
- 2021 Global Agricultural Productivity Report: Climate for Agricultural GrowthSteensland, Ann (Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 2021-10-20)During the next 30 years, the world’s population will grow larger and more prosperous. Demand will soar for food and agricultural goods, including meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, timber, oilseeds for cooking and industrial uses, and biomass for energy, heat, and cooking. At the same time, the natural resource base and ecosystems are under stress from climate change, soil degradation, and poor water management. Poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition remain stubbornly high, condemning hundreds of millions of people to ill health and unfulfilled potential. Accelerating productivity growth at all scales of production is imperative to meet the needs of consumers and address current and future threats to human and environmental well-being. The human, economic, and environmental consequences of not meeting productivity targets are profound.
- 2022 Global Agricultural Productivity Report: Troublesome Trends And System ShocksSteensland, Ann (Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Global Programs, 2022)Global agricultural systems are being rocked by COVID-19, climate change, extreme weather events, and conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere, driving up prices for food and agricultural inputs. The agricultural systems of high- and upper-middle-income countries are withstanding the shocks relatively well. However, food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty rates have risen sharply, especially in low-income countries since 2020. In 2022, 40 million people faced emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity, twice as high as in 2020 and six times more than in 2016 (Food Security Information Network, 2022). The troubling trends in agricultural productivity growth are mainly unnoticed; updated data reveals that the world’s shock-sensitive systems rest on increasingly fragile foundations. Reversing the downward trajectory of global agricultural productivity growth demands urgent action from policymakers, leaders, donors, scientists, farmers, and others in the agri-food system.
- Breakthroughs in Agricultural Productivity: Participatory Research and the PhytobiomeSteensland, Ann; Zeigler, Margaret (Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences, 2022-01-17)Agriculture and food systems must provide nutrition and agricultural products for nearly 10 billion people by 2050. Agriculture is a powerful economic driver and by prioritizing agricultural productivity and innovation, food systems can become more resilient and improve the wider economy while generating employment. Yet, powerful solutions and approaches are needed that must move beyond “low-hanging fruit” when investing in low-income country agriculture systems. As part of the solution, we discuss innovations such as participatory research models from the International Potato Center (CIP) as well as how to unlock and harness existing plant genetics through the phytobiome.
- Building Africa’s first “e-Extension Platform” for smallholder farmersRyoya, Tasia; Steensland, Ann (Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative, Virginia Tech, 2021-02-24)Sasakawa Africa Association envisions an e-Extension Platform that provides smallholder farmers information about technology transfer, agricultural inputs, and markets at any time. The e-Extension Platform should not only improve agricultural productivity in the COVID-19 era, but also resolve the “information asymmetry” that can occur in agricultural extension throughout the value chain through the active use of ICT, even in the post-COVID-19 era.
- Building trust and closing the productivity gap in IndiaSteensland, Ann (Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative, Virginia Tech)Building trust between communities within agriculture systems overcomes barriers and facilitates the adoption of new technologies and practices for productivity and resilience.
- The Case for Productivity: Invigorating agricultural systems for the twenty-first centurySteensland, Ann; Thompson, T. (Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 2021-06-15)Accelerating agricultural productivity growth at all scales of production is imperative to meet the needs of consumers and address threats to human and environmental well-being.
- The Case for Productivity: Invigorating agriculture for the twenty-first centurySteensland, Ann (Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 2021-06-15)Animation covering the basics of productivity growth.
- FES Champions Business-Driven Approach to Food System DevelopmentStevenson, Abigail; Steensland, Ann (Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative, Virginia Tech, 2021-02-18)Food Enterprise Solutions (FES) aims to tackle food safety issues in emerging economies, to the benefit of growing food businesses, consumers, and food systems as a whole.
- Filling the GAPs: Expert EssaysThompson, Tommy; Grove, Ben; Archibald, Thomas G.; Agnew, Jessica L.; Steensland, Ann (2020-10-12)Agricultural productivity is best expressed as Total Factor Productivity-TFP. TFP is a measure of efficiency in agriculture — the efficiency with which agricultural inputs such as labor, fertilizers and seeds are converted into outputs of crops and livestock. According to the the Global Agricultural Productivity Index (GAP Index), global TFP must increase by 1.73 percent annually to meet global goals for adequate food, feed, fiber, and biofuel for 10 billion people by 2050. When we fall short of this target growth rate, as we have each year since the GAP Index was developed in 2010, this creates a “productivity gap”. The productivity gap is worsening in the world’s poorest countries, where TFP growth now averages only 0.58 percent annually. The productivity gap threatens food security and often forces farmers to cultivate marginal lands, which can also threaten biodiversity. How do we close the productivity gap and get back on track to achieving global food security? This year, the GAP Report editors invited scholars and experts to submit essays based upon their research about strategies for closing the productivity gap and increasing agricultural sustainability and resilience.
- Improving gender and nutrition outcomes of women poultry farmersSteensland, Ann (Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative, Virginia Tech)A program implemented by Tanager, an international development organization, is transforming the poultry sector in Burkina Faso.
- Innovative agricultural technologies and practices promote productivity and resilienceSteensland, Ann (Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative, Virginia Tech, 2021-04-13)Agricultural productivity is not just essential for sustainably meeting the demands of a growing world. The technologies and practices that enable producers to produce more output with the same amount, or less inputs, can also be harnessed to cultivate resilience. In addition to COVID-19, agricultural communities battle pandemic-scale pest and disease outbreaks every year. The health and productivity of people, livestock, and crops are all vulnerable, and resilience in the face of these threats has never been more important. The stories below describe how the GAP Initiative’s Supporting Partners are working with communities around the world to improve their productivity and resilience.
- International Women's Day: Hellen's storySteensland, Ann; Corder, Erica (Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative, Virginia Tech, 2021-03-02)Hellen Wanjiko Waweru, a Kenyan smallholder farmer, shares her farming practices, challenges, and hopes for the future in this documentary short.
- Investing in innovation and infrastructure in the International Year of Fruits and VegetablesCorder, Erica (Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative, Virginia Tech, 2021-01-28)Fruits and vegetables are essential for human nutrition. But they’re also beneficial to the food system: the fruit and vegetable sector can help benefit global efforts to generate environmental sustainability, increase biodiversity, and improve the livelihoods of farmers and employees along the value chains. Investments in traceability innovations and cold chain infrastructures can reduce post-harvest loss in the fruit and vegetable sector.
- Mung bean: Nutrient-rich legume for SenegalAbaye, Azenegashe Ozzie; Steensland, Ann (Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative, Virginia Tech, 2021-02-09)Since 2019, Virginia Tech, in collaboration with Counterpart International, has been investigating the potential of mung bean to address malnutrition and food security in Senegal. The project seeks to create acceptance and increase consumption in communities to address malnutrition and food insecurity. Mung bean is a variety of pulse, the dried, edible seeds of legume plants and can be used as food, fodder, and seed. There are 11 types of pulses, each having many varieties. Dried beans, chickpeas, and lentils are the most common types of pulses.
- Nuffield International Scholars ConferenceSteensland, Ann (2019-03-13)Presentation on agricultural productivity growth.
- Participatory farmer research and exploring the phytobiome: Next steps for agricultural productivity growthZeigler, Margaret M.; Steensland, Ann (NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, 2022-03-25)Agriculture and food systems must provide nutrition and agricultural products for nearly 10 billion people by 2050. Agriculture is a powerful economic driver, and by prioritizing agricultural productivity and innovation, food systems can become more resilient and improve the wider economy while generating employment. Yet, powerful solutions and approaches are needed that must move beyond “low-hanging fruit” when investing in low-income country agriculture systems. As part of the solution, we discuss innovations such as participatory research models from the International Potato Center (CIP) as well as how to unlock and harness existing plant genetics through the phytobiome.
- Productivity in Agriculture for a Sustainable FutureSteensland, Ann; Zeigler, Margaret (Springer, 2021)In 2050, the number of people living on our planet will grow to nearly 10 billion, and that could double the demand for food, feed, fiber, and biofuels from 2005 levels (von Lampe et al. 2014). It is imperative that this demand be met in a way that is economically viable, environmentally sustainable, and socially beneficial. Our food and agriculture systems face enormous challenges to sustainably producing sufficient, nutritious affordable food, feed, fiber, and biofuel for a growing world. At present, agriculture is the largest user of water globally; agriculture also is the single largest use of land, covering a third of the planet’s surface. Competition between food production and other uses of water and land will increase in the coming decades. In addition, climate change threatens agricultural productivity due to increased temperatures and shifts in weather patterns (Box 2.1), thereby making it difficult for crops and livestock to grow and thrive and for agricultural laborers to endure the physical challenges.