Feed the Future Thematic Overview Note: Improving Agricultural Productivity

The May 2011 Feed the Future Research Strategy outlines a research strategy based on international public goods accompanied by targeted investments which benefit Focus Country producers and consumers that serve as economically stabilizing regional market hubs with local impact and scale applicability. This strategy results in three guiding research themes: advancing the productivity frontier, transforming production systems, and enhanced nutrition and food safety.

According to the May 2011 strategy, innovative research and partnerships will help address these themes to support agricultural systems that most effectively and efficiently harness fundamental biological, physical, and socio-economic processes in ways that meet the needs of the poor and the hungry.

This note (on Agrilinks) discusses the potential for evaluations of Feed the Future programs in Haiti and Tanzania to contribute to a broader learning agenda. It then sets out some ideas on additional examples of ways in which Feed the Future might be able to generate some knowledge that could increase agricultural productivity.