3,455 research outputs found
Towards resilience through systems-based plant breeding. A review
How the growing world population can feed itself is a crucial, multi-dimensional problem that goes beyond sustainable development. Crop production will be affected by many changes in its climatic, agronomic, economic, and societal contexts.
Therefore, breeders are challenged to produce cultivars that strengthen both ecological and societal resilience by striving for
six international sustainability targets: food security, safety and quality; food and seed sovereignty; social justice;
agrobiodiversity; ecosystem services; and climate robustness. Against this background, we review the state of the art in plant
breeding by distinguishing four paradigmatic orientations that currently co-exist: community-based breeding, ecosystem-based
breeding, trait-based breeding, and corporate-based breeding, analyzing differences among these orientations. Our main findings
are: (1) all four orientations have significant value but none alone will achieve all six sustainability targets; (2) therefore, an
overarching approach is needed: âsystems-based breeding,â an orientation with the potential to synergize the strengths of the
ways of thinking in the current paradigmatic orientations; (3) achieving that requires specific knowledge development and
integration, a multitude of suitable breeding strategies and tools, and entrepreneurship, but also a change in attitude based on
corporate responsibility, circular economy and true-cost accounting, and fair and green policies. We conclude that systems-based
breeding can create strong interactions between all system components. While seeds are part of the common good and the basis of
agrobiodiversity, a diversity in breeding approaches, based on different entrepreneurial approaches, can also be considered part of
the required agrobiodiversity. To enable systems-based breeding to play a major role in creating sustainable agriculture, a shared
sense of urgency is needed to realize the required changes in breeding approaches, institutions, regulations and protocols. Based
on this concept of systems-based breeding, there are opportunities for breeders to play an active role in the development of an
ecologically and societally resilient, sustainable agriculture
Scaling Success: Lessons from Adaptation Pilots in the Rainfed Regions of India
"Scaling Success" examines how agricultural communities are adapting to the challenges posed by climate change through the lens of India's rainfed agriculture regions. Rainfed agriculture currently occupies 58 percent of India's cultivated land and accounts for up to 40 percent of its total food production. However, these regions face potential production losses of more than $200 billion USD in rice, wheat, and maize by 2050 due to the effects of climate change. Unless action is taken soon at a large scale, farmers will see sharp decreases in revenue and yields.Rainfed regions across the globe have been an important focus for the first generation of adaptation projects, but to date, few have achieved a scale that can be truly transformational. Drawing on lessons learnt from 21 case studies of rainfed agriculture interventions, the report provides guidance on how to design, fund and support adaptation projects that can achieve scale
Strategic Research Agenda for organic food and farming
The TP Organics Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) was finalised in December 2009.
The purpose of the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) is to enable research, development and knowledge transfer that will deliver relevant outcomes â results that will contribute to the improvement of the organic sector and other low external input systems.
The document has been developed through a dynamic consultative process that ran from 2008 to 2009.
It involved a wide range of stakeholders who enthusiastically joined the effort to define organic research priorities.
From December 2008 to February; the expert groups elaborated the first draft. The consultative process involved the active participation of many different countries. Consultation involved researchers, advisors, members of inspection/certification bodies, as well as different users/beneficiaries of the research such as farmers, processors, market actors and members of civil society organisations throughout Europe and further afield in order to gather the research needs of the whole organic sector
Performance Measures to Assess Resiliency and Efficiency of Transit Systems
Transit agencies are interested in assessing the short-, mid-, and long-term performance of infrastructure with the objective of enhancing resiliency and efficiency. This report addresses three distinct aspects of New Jerseyâs Transit System: 1) resiliency of bridge infrastructure, 2) resiliency of public transit systems, and 3) efficiency of transit systems with an emphasis on paratransit service.
This project proposed a conceptual framework to assess the performance and resiliency for bridge structures in a transit network before and after disasters utilizing structural health monitoring (SHM), finite element (FE) modeling and remote sensing using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). The public transit systems in NY/NJ were analyzed based on their vulnerability, resiliency, and efficiency in recovery following a major natural disaster
The future of Cybersecurity in Italy: Strategic focus area
This volume has been created as a continuation of the previous one, with the aim of outlining a set of focus areas and actions that the Italian Nation research community considers essential. The book touches many aspects of cyber security, ranging from the definition of the infrastructure and controls needed to organize cyberdefence to the actions and technologies to be developed to be better protected, from the identification of the main technologies to be defended to the proposal of a set of horizontal actions for training, awareness raising, and risk management
Transformative spaces in the making: key lessons from nine cases in the Global South
Creating a just and sustainable planet will require not only small changes, but also systemic transformations in how humans relate to the planet and to each other, i.e., socialâecological transformations. We suggest there is a need for collaborative environments where experimentation with new configurations of socialâecological systems can occur, and we refer to these as transformative spaces. In this paper, we seek a better understanding of how to design and enable the creation of transformative spaces in a development context. We analyse nine case studies from a previous special issue on Designing Transformative Spaces that aimed to collect examples of cutting-edge action-oriented research on transformations from the Global South. The analysis showed five design phases as being essential: Problem Definition Phase; Operationalisation Phase; Tactical Phase; Outcome Phase; and Reflection Phase. From this synthesis, we distilled five key messages that should be considered when designing research, including: (a) there are ethical dilemmas associated with creating a transformative space in a system; (b) it is important to assess the readiness of the system for change before engaging in it; (c) there is a need to balance between âsafeâ and âsafe-enoughâ spaces for transformation; (d) convening a transformative space requires an assemblage of diverse methodological frameworks and tools; and (e) transformative spaces can act as a starting point for institutionalising transformative change. Many researchers are now engaging in transdisciplinary transformations research, and are finding themselves at the knowledgeâaction interface contributing to transformative space-making. We hope that by analysing experiences from across different geographies we can contribute towards better understanding of how to navigate the processes needed for the urgent global transformations that are being called for to create a more equitable and sustainable planet Earth
Review of agricultural production systems in eastern Africa in relation to food and nutrition security and climate change
The goal of this paper is to provide a unified resource for Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. For each country the review covers the topics of livestock production systems and agroecological zones, food and nutrition security, climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) with a focus on the role of, or impact on, livestock systems. Each of these topics is broad and many excellent studies and reviews have been produced covering these topics either at the country level or for the entire East Africa region. It is the goal of this paper to provide an accessible introduction to these topics and to direct readers to the resources that exist for gathering detailed information on livestock production, food nutrition and security, climate change, GHG emissions and climate-smart livestock production in each country
Food supply chain network robustness : a literature review and research agenda
Todayâs business environment is characterized by challenges of strong global competition where companies tend to achieve leanness and maximum responsiveness. However, lean supply chain networks (SCNs) become more vulnerable to all kind of disruptions. Food SCNs have to become robust, i.e. they should be able to continue to function in the event of disruption as well as in normal business environment. Current literature provides no explicit clarification related to robustness issue in food SCN context. This paper explores the meaning of SCN robustness and highlights further research direction
Resourceful leadership: how directors of childrenâs services improve outcomes for children, full report
Leading for Outcomes is a unique study into senior leadership in childrenâs services in England, drawing on in-depth primary research with leaders in eight local authorities, and 22 directors of childrenâs services. The eight local authorities were selected on a range of factors but primarily to represent existing high performers or rapidly improving authorities in terms of outcomes. The research was commissioned by the National College in partnership with C4EO, and completed by a team comprising Deloitte, Navigate and the University of Oxford. The study was completed during 2010.
The key concept the Leading for Outcomes research has uncovered is that of the resourceful leader1. This report sets out a definition of resourcefulness and the eight core behaviours of resourceful leaders. It then discusses resourcefulness within three specific contexts that emerged as part of the research: leading change, leading in a time of shock, and managing the corporate and political landscape
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