Credit: Julio Berdegue

Small-scale agriculture plays an essential role in reducing poverty and improving food security for rural and urban people.

Food demand is expected to double by 2050. To meet this growing need, food must be produced using existing resources more sustainably. Distribution must be more equitable, with attention to the needs of the poorest and most food insecure (often women, children, ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples and lower castes).

We are interested in research that can help identify opportunities to increase yields and incomes from small-scale farming and provide for more vibrant economies, while providing food to rural and urban consumers.

We also are interested in research to examine how rural development policies can become a catalyst for food security, economic growth, poverty reduction and more equitable societies.

Research must look beyond farms to markets and value chains that link producers to consumers, including ways to harness information and communication technologies. Research needs to find options that generate employment and business opportunities for the poor.

Our goal: improve food and income security for poor women and men in developing countries.

In most cases AFS will only fund research defined, conducted, and managed by developing-country researchers. If you are a Canadian researcher working on food security research please visit the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF) website. CIFSRF supports partnerships between Canadian and developing country researchers.

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Agroforestry: From traditional practice to solid science 2010-07
Three decades of work by the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre has turned a traditional practice — growing trees and shrubs alongside crops — into a science-based discipline. That science, agroforestry, is now recognized around the world for its potential to provide food, fodder, increase crop yields and incomes, protect watersheds, provide energy, prevent land degradation, and more.