Increasing and maintaining agricultural productivity is important to keep pace with a growing global need for nutritious, safe, and diverse foods. Research has a central role to play in driving productivity gains – whether it’s developing resilient crop varieties, designing cost-effective technologies that can help diagnose plant disease and test soil composition, or understanding factors in the enabling environment that can affect adoption of good farming practices.  

This month, Agrilinks will be showcasing the Feed the Future Innovation Labs, U.S. university research centers working in tandem with developing country partners to pioneer solutions that boost productivity, combat emerging threats, and benefit farmers and food producers both at home and abroad. We will also share with the Agrilinks community the U.S. government’s new Global Food Security Research Strategy, developed in part with your input to support the U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy.  

In the meantime, we’d like to share a sample of resources from Agrilinks’ archives on the topic:

• The Innovation Lab pages are a window onto the Labs’ considerable contributions to applied ag research, including practical tools like this recently released soybean disease diagnostic guide. We’ll be doing a series of profiles to showcase their work this month, starting with this interview with Sustainable Intensification Lab director Vara Prasad.                                                               
• Productive fields start with quality seeds and well managed soils. Read this recent series on commercializing seed markets, and then check out Agrilinks’ collections on soils.
• This post from the Agrilinks Team showcases research on emerging plant diseases, which can devastate farmer yields and profits. A more recent post looks at an Innovation Lab’s work to commercialize a disease-fighting fungus – a win-win for South Asian farmers and entrepreneurs.
• Agriculture means more than soil-based production; livestock and aquaculture are important food sources, yet can deplete resources if not managed carefully. This article on tilapia feed is one of many examples of how Innovation Lab researchers are developing more sustainable, cost effective sources of feed.
• Finally, we’ll leave you with this inspiring portrait of Clara Darko, a Ghanaian woman forging a professional path in biological systems engineering, a rarity in a male-dominated field. Research advances aren’t possible without pioneers like Clara dedicating their careers to this field.

We’ve only highlighted a few of the many great contributions made to Agrilinks on the topic over the years, so we encourage you to explore this area further via our new Topics feature, which organizes all the site content via 11 key food security topics, including ag productivity.

We invite everyone’s contributions on this theme —from researchers working across the globe to tackle these challenges, to field implementers whose programs are informed by such research findings and technologies. We look forward to furthering the conversation with you this month!