Despite decades of advances and innovations, food systems around the world are still unable to ensure that healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food is available for all — and it is the smallholder farmers, women and other marginalized groups who are the most impacted.
However, there is strong momentum for change. Initiatives are emerging across the globe to transform food systems into vectors of sustainability, equity and health. Research in key areas such as agroecology, food loss and waste, sustainable procurement and farmer-centric digital services can support this transitional movement by providing locally based evidence that can activate and accelerate the desired changes.
Linked below, 10 recent scoping studies have identified the current knowledge gaps and critical levers of change within and across critical food system entry points — agroecology, food loss and waste reduction, sustainable procurement and digital services for farmers — that present a high potential to drive food systems transformation in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Together, they highlight priority areas for research investments and can guide the creation of new potential partnerships with key research and funding organizations to increase impact at scale.
The common themes that emerge from this body of work emphasize that marginalized voices and participation should be amplified, that gender inequalities and power imbalances should be tackled at their root, that governance systems should be improved and that coordination and work across sectors and levels should be enhanced.
The research priorities identified in the 10 scoping studies were further mapped onto the 13 principles of agroecology. This was done by an interdisciplinary team led by Anna Paskal and the Institute for Agroecology of the University of Vermont, USA, to reveal high-level similarities and alignment and to highlight which principles require further research efforts. This analysis is available in the briefs accompanying each of the scoping studies below. A synthesis report summarizing key findings from the briefs and proposing pathways to increase the impact that this research has on food systems transformation will be available soon.
The briefs clearly indicate that while research efforts need to be maintained on principles like input reduction, biodiversity and soil health, food system transformation will be accelerated with research that goes beyond agroecosystems to embrace the entire food system, from production to post-consumption. Research must also shift focus from technologies to social systems, as tackling issues of participation, governance, power, diets and co-creation of knowledge is urgently needed to achieve the transformation and build the food systems we aspire to.
Together, these efforts indicate that by advancing a principles-based approach to research — with interconnected strategic leverage points — research can play a truly game-changing role in transforming food systems around the world and accelerating positive change.
Each scoping study linked below includes full study text and an affiliated brief, providing an overview of its main findings — such as research priorities for the future — and the analysis of their relationship with the 13 principles of agroecology, using the Agroecology Financing Analysis Toolkit as a framework. Some studies are also available in Spanish.
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