Our food systems are under unprecedented pressure. With the global population expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030, making food systems more sustainable will depend on the development and deployment of innovative tools and approaches around the world.

Launched in partnership with CGIAR, Farming First’s latest campaign – Innovations for Sustainable Food Systems – features a range of case studies where progress is being made to make food systems more sustainable.

Sustainable food systems are interconnected and represent the full agri-value chain – from pre-production and production to supply chains and consumption. The campaign showcases examples of innovation in action:

Pre-Production: including the development and maintenance of genebanks, best practices around fertilizer and water stewardship, alternative or improved food sources like fruit trees into mixed crop farming systems, and the development of hardier, more productive seeds.

Production: including reducing dangerous aflatoxin levels in groundnuts and maize, how to use fertilizer to fend off the impacts of fall armyworm, text-based early warning systems for farmers, rice cultivation in lowland areas, and the creation of ‘climate-smart villages’ to tap into technologies and practices for adaptation and mitigation.

Supply Chain: around solar-powered freezers, processing improvements in milk and sweetpotato value chains, marketing nutritious native crops, wholesaling of goats as an alternative livelihood source for climate-affected farmers, and data-driven risk management services to help make supply chains more predictable and resilient.

Consumption: including cooking workshops using nutrient-rich orange-fleshed sweetpotato, energy-efficient stoves to improve health and prevent desertification, and small-scale vegetable gardens for nutritious meals at home and at school.

Discover the full campaign from Farming First and CGIAR, exploring the challenges and opportunities in building sustainable food systems: www.farmingfirst.org/food-systems