Record Details

Breaking the food-system divide with Smart Food: good for you, the planet and the farmer

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/11052/
https://www.crawfordfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2018-Crawford-Fund-Conference-Proceedings.pdf
 
Title Breaking the food-system divide with Smart Food: good for you, the planet and the farmer
 
Creator Kane-Potaka, J
 
Subject Smart Foods
Cereals
Millets
Semi-arid tropics
Food and Nutrition
Climate Change
Food Security
African Agriculture
Indian Agriculture
Africa
India
 
Description The ‘food-system divide’ – which is rarely talked about,
let alone challenged – is one of the biggest hindrances
to achieving a healthy population and sustainable and
viable agricultural systems in developing countries.
For decades, the majority of investments, whether on
R&D, or big company investment, or policy support, or
product development or even development aid, have
been funnelled into just three major crops: rice, wheat
and maize. These ‘Big 3’ crops provide 50% of the world’s
calories and protein. As a result, their value chains are well developed and
supported, making it very difficult to ‘mainstream’ other foods. The need
for greater diversity in diets and on-farm is well known. Meeting that need
will require mainstreaming and ensuring the viability of more foods. This
should not be tackled with just any food but with food that is ‘good for you
(nutritious and healthy), good for the planet (environmentally sustainable)
and good for the farmer (viable and climate smart)’; that is our definition
of Smart Food. The Smart Food initiative aims to learn from the successes
of the ‘Big 3’ and create the ‘Big 5’ and eventually the ‘Big 7’, and so on.
Smart Food will focus especially on foods that can be eaten as staples. This
way, we will have a major impact on some of the leading global issues. As
Smart Food is good for you and the planet and the farmer, these three
qualities can in unison contribute to healthy people and sustainable and
viable agriculture.
 
Date 2018-08
 
Type Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/11052/1/Breaking.pdf
Kane-Potaka, J (2018) Breaking the food-system divide with Smart Food: good for you, the planet and the farmer. In: Proceedings of the Crawford Fund 2018 Annual Conference, 13–14 August 2018, Parliament House, Canberra ACT, Australia.