Geographic priorities for research and development on dryland cereals and legumes

Dryland cereal and legume crops have often received less attention than maize, wheat and rice in terms of research and development priorities. But these crops are important globally because they serve populations living in poverty and particular socioeconomic and environmental niches. Compared to other crops, less is known about the global distribution of dryland cereal and legume crops and the conditions where they are grown. This research reports on an international effort to compile geographic information on cereal and legume crops and the conditions under which they are cultivated.. The study suggested that dryland cereal and legume crops should be given priority in 18 farming systems worldwide, representing 160 million ha. The priority regions include the drier areas of South Asia, West and East Africa, Middle East and North Africa, Central America and other parts of Asia. These regions are prone to drought and heat stress, among other biotic and abiotic constraints. They represent 60% of the global poor and malnourished and make up half of the global population

Exploring dryland cereals and legumes for addressing food security: ATLAS DCL CGIAR, Research Program on Dryland Cereals and Legumes Agri-Food Systems

Population growth and climate change threatens the world’s capacity to produce food into the future. Dryland cereal and legume (DCL) crops are part of any global solution to food security challenges. But these crops are often overlooked and under researched when compared to the main staples such as rice, wheat and maize. What are the priority regions for research on dryland cereals and legumes? This study determined the priority regions for research on these crops. The DCL crops are chickpea, common bean, cowpea, faba bean, groundnut, lentil, pigeon pea, soybean, barley, pearl millet, small millet and sorghum

MEL APP CGIAR Initiative on Agroecology

The MELIA - Agroecology - application allows the management (generation and upload of templates and download of massive information) of the key performance indicators of the CGIAR initiative on Agroecoolgy. The platform was implemented so that administrator users can create new indicators. The application provides a dashboard that allows the visualization of basic graphs with the information that is collected online. A basic registry is necessary to assign permissions according to the user's role. Finally, the application was designed so that at a given moment the implementation of other functionalities or modules is allowed

Lessons from Panama on combining REDD+ and land restoration to reduce net emissions

Panama, like other tropical countries, is undergoing land-use change that is contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. An analysis was made of the principal land-use changes, losses and gains of carbon stocks and potential impacts on livelihoods. We also analyzed the potential of policies to reduce net emissions through the REDD and Alliance for the Million Hectares (AMH)

Improving agricultural knowledge management: The AgTrials experience [version 2; referees: 2 approved]

Background: Opportunities to use data and information to address challenges in international agricultural research and development are expanding rapidly. The use of agricultural trial and evaluation data has enormous potential to improve crops and management practices. However, for a number of reasons, this potential has yet to be realized. This paper reports on the experience of the AgTrials initiative, an effort to build an online database of agricultural trials applying principles of interoperability and open access. Methods: Our analysis evaluates what worked and what did not work in the development of the AgTrials information resource. We analyzed data on our users and their interaction with the platform. We also surveyed our users to gauge their perceptions of the utility of the online database. Results: The study revealed barriers to participation and impediments to interaction, opportunities for improving agricultural knowledge management and a large potential for the use of trial and evaluation data. Conclusions: Technical and logistical mechanisms for developing interoperable online databases are well advanced.  More effort will be needed to advance organizational and institutional work for these types of databases to realize their potential

Atlas DCL CGIAR - Research Program on Dryland Cereals and Legumes Agri-Food Systems (DCL)

This Atlas is part of DCL’s effort to set research and development program priorities. The objective is to include the geographic dimensions of DCL crop production in our overall crop and dryland systems improvement research and development. Most of the data is public domain and available online. We expect to update this Atlas in the future when new data comes available. We are especially interested in new information on biotic constraints to DCL crop production. We welcome your feedback and suggestions about how we can improve this online resource

Priority regions for research on dryland cereals and legumes

Dryland cereals and legumes are important crops in farming systems across the world. Yet they are frequently neglected among the priorities for international agricultural research and development, often due to lack of information on their magnitude and extent. Given what we know about the global distribution of dryland cereals and legumes, what regions should be high priority for research and development to improve livelihoods and food security? This research evaluated the geographic dimensions of these crops and the farming systems where they are found worldwide. The study employed geographic information science and data to assess the key farming systems and regions for these crops. Dryland cereal and legume crops should be given high priority in 18 farming systems worldwide, where their cultivated area comprises more than 160 million ha. These regions include the dryer areas of South Asia, West and East Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Central America and other parts of Asia. These regions are prone to drought and heat stress, have limiting soil constraints, make up half of the global population and account for 60 percent of the global poor and malnourished. The dryland cereal and legume crops and farming systems merit more research and development attention to improve productivity and address development problems. This project developed an open access dataset and information resource that provides the basis for future analysis of the geographic dimensions of dryland cereals and legumes