International Food Policy Research Institute

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations in agricultural technology. Additionally, IFPRI researches the role of agricultural and rural development in the overall development of a country.
According to its website, IFPRI "seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty."

IFPRI is an international research institutes funded in part by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). CGIAR is funded by governments, private businesses and foundations, and the World Bank.

Scope
IFPRI carries out food policy research.  IFPRI communicates in publications, bulletins, conferences, and other initiatives. IFPRI was organized as a District of Columbia non-profit, non-stock corporation on March 5, 1975 and its first research bulletin was produced in February 1976. IFPRI has offices in several developing countries, including China, Ethiopia, and India. IFPRI has research staff working in many more countries around the world.

Research Areas
IFPRI's strategy has the areas: research, capacity strengthening, and policy communication.

Research topics have included low crop and animal productivity, and environmental degradation, water management, fragile lands, property rights, collective action, sustainable intensification of agricultural production, the impact of climate change on poor farmers, the problems and opportunities of biotechnology, food security, micronutrient malnutrition, microfinance programs, urban food security, gender and development, and resource allocation within households.

IFPRI also analyzes agricultural market reforms, trade policy, World Trade Organization negotiations in the context of agriculture, institutional effectiveness, crop and income diversification, postharvest activity, and agroindustry.

IFPRI measures the Millennium Development Goals project and supports governments in the formulation and implementation of development strategies.

Further work includes research on agricultural innovation systems and the role of capacity strengthening in agricultural development.

Products and Publications
IFPRI publishes books, research reports, but also newsletters, briefs, and fact sheets. It is also involved in the collection of primary data and the compilation and processing of secondary data.

In 1993 IFPRI introduced its 2020 Vision Initiative. IFPRI wants to reach food security for the world by 2020.

As of 2006 IFPRI produces the Global Hunger Index (GHI) yearly measuring the progress and failure of individual countries and regions in the fight against hunger. The GHI is a collaboration of IFPRI, the Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide.

IFPRI has produced the related Hunger Index for the States of India (ISHI) (2008) and the Sub-National Hunger Index for Ethiopia (2009).

Organizational structure
IFPRI is made up of the Office of the Director General, a Communications Division and the Finance and Administration Division, and 5 research divisions:
Development Strategy and Governance
Environment and Production Technology
Poverty, Health, and Nutrition
Knowledge, Capacity, and Innovation
Markets, Trade, and Institutions

IFPRI hosts several research networks:
The Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI)
The CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi)
Harvest Plus
HarvestChoice

Criticism
CGIAR and its agencies, including IFPRI, have been criticized for their connections to Western governments and multinational agribusiness, although its research publications have also been cited by critics of agribusiness and Genetically Modified Organisms in agriculture. IFPRI describes itself as "neither an advocate nor an opponent of genetically modified crops."

References

Further reading
Adato, Michelle, and Ruth Meinzen-Dick. 2007. Agricultural Research, Livelihoods, and Poverty: Studies of Economic and Social Impacts in Six Countries. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
CGIAR Science Council Secretariat. 2006. Fourth External Program and Management Review of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Rome, Italy: CGIAR Science Council.
Farrar, Curtis. 2000. The first ten years of IFPRI. Washington, DC: IFPRI.
Lele, Uma J. 2004. Policy Research in the CGIAR. In The CGIAR at 31: An Independent Meta-Evaluation of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Chapter 11, pp. 87–92. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Renkow, Mitch, and Derek Byerlee. 2010. The impacts of CGIAR research: A review of recent evidence. Food Policy, In Press, Corrected Proof. Available online 20 May 2010.
von Braun, Joachim and Rajul Pandya-Lorch, Rajul, eds. 2005. Food policy for the poor: Expanding the research frontiers, highlights from 30 years of IFPRI research. Washington, DC: IFPRI.
von Grebmer, Klaus and Ingeborg Hovland. 2009. Using 'systems awareness': a proposed mechanism for monitoring communications. Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice. Vol 5 (3): 295–303

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