Building lasting solutions to reduce global hunger

December 15, 2016

Innovative research partnerships are helping smallholder farmers produce healthier food, earn higher incomes, and promote sustainable agriculture

CIFSRF: Investing in solutions that work

The Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF) invests in applied research addressing the critical challenge of global hunger.

Together with partners in developing countries, CIFSRF tests and scales up practical solutions to increase food production, raise incomes for farming families, and improve nutrition throughout the Global South.

Solutions can take the form of products, technologies, methods, and practices with the potential to improve food availability, access, and use. The types of solutions include:

Animal vaccines
Climate-resilient agricultural practices
Crop disease control strategies
Improved seeds
Knowledge sharing services
Post-harvest technologies
Sustainable agribusiness models
Nutritious foods

Turning research into solutions

CIFSRF works with leading security and nutrition experts and hundreds of thousands of farmers to create concrete solutions to global hunger.

Partnering: Our researchers partner with farmers, civil society organizations, governments, and private sector companies to address the needs of farmers.
Testing: Our projects combine cutting-edge science with local knowledge to develop tools, business models, and practices that benefit men and women smallholder farmers.
Scaling: Our partners explore ways to deploy and ensure the adoption of more than 60 food security and nutrition solutions to benefit millions of people in developing countries.
Informing: Our research results inform the development of improved policies and programs.

CIFSRF solutions increase production, access, and consumption of safe and nutritious food

Mobile phones and marketing for vitamin A

Rural enterprises in Tanzania can now easily fortify crude sunflower oil with vitamin A. Fortified foods are an effective way to address micronutrient deficiencies, which afflict more than one-third of all children and women of reproductive age in Tanzania. Mobile phone coupons offer an innovative way to generate demand and increase consumption of fortified oil by mothers and their young children.

Reducing food losses after harvest

Using nanotechnology and hexanal, a natural plant extract, researchers in Canada, India, and Sri Lanka developed post-harvest technologies that enable farmers to store fruits longer and transport them to consumer markets, bringing farming families more income. For example, smart packaging can lengthen the ripening of soft fruits, such as mango and papaya.

Healthy pulses, healthy soil

Farmers in Ethiopia are now growing high-yield and nutritious varieties of pulses in vulnerable dry areas. By combining improved varieties and better management techniques, research has helped farmers increase soil fertility, reduce carbon and water footprints, and improve nutrition.

More nutritious potatoes

Researchers in Colombia and Canada have collaborated in the lab and with farmers to develop yellow potato varieties with higher iron, protein, and zinc levels. These varieties offer 18% higher yields and are more resistant to late blight disease than other common potatoes, which translates into improved nutrition and higher incomes for farmers.