Food Security Goals Research Articles

Advancing the science and practice of ecological nutrient management for smallholder farmers

Soil degradation is widespread in smallholder agrarian communities across the globe where limited resource farmers struggle to overcome poverty and malnutrition. This review lays out the scientific basis and practical management options for an ecologically based approach to sustainably managing soil fertility, with particular attention to smallholder subsistence systems. We seek to change the trajectory of development programs that continue to promote inorganic fertilizers and other high input strategies to resource constrained smallholders, despite ample evidence that this approach is falling short of food security goals and contributing to resource degradation. Ecological nutrient management (ENM) is an agroecological approach to managing the biogeochemical cycles that govern soil ecosystem services and soil fertility. The portfolio of ENM strategies extends beyond reliance on inorganic fertilizers and is guided by the following five principles: (1) Build soil organic matter and other nutrient reserves. (2) Minimize the size of N and P pools that are the most susceptible to loss. (3) Maximize agroecosystem capacity to use soluble, inorganic N and P. (4) Use functional and phylogenetic biodiversity to minimize bare fallows and maximize presence of growing plants. (5) Construct agroecosystem and field scale mass balances to track net nutrient flows over multiple growing seasons. Strategic increases in spatial and temporal plant species diversity is a core ENM tactic that expands agroecosystem multifunctionality to meet smallholder priorities beyond soil restoration and crop yields. Examples of ENM practices include the use of functionally designed polycultures, diversified rotations, reduced fallow periods, increased reliance on legumes, integrated crop-livestock production, and use of variety of soil amendments. These practices foster soil organic matter accrual and restoration of soil function, both of which underpin agroecosystem resilience. When ENM is first implemented, short-term yield outcomes are variable; however, over the long-term, management systems that employ ENM can increase yields, yield stability, profitability and food security. ENM rests on a solid foundation of ecosystem and biogeochemical science, and despite the many barriers imposed by current agricultural policies, successful ENM systems are being promoted by some development actors and used by smallholder farmers, with promising results.

Ultra-processed food: a global problem requiring a global solution

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a specialised agency of the UN, leads international efforts to eradicate hunger, improve nutrition, and achieve food security for all, through strategies such as World Food Day. According to the 2022 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, as of 2021, 2·3 billion people worldwide faced food insecurity, without access or availability to healthy, nutritious food. Barriers including climate change, international tensions, and rising prices prevent the achievement of the FAO goal of global food security.

Development and environmental impacts of China's livestock and poultry breeding

With the ever-growing of livestock and poultry breeding (LPB) in China, its environmental problems have become a common concern. Pollution risk, resource potential and related policies evolution are essential to clarify, which is beneficial to better promote sustainable development of the LPB. In this study, a data-set covering the main animals of China's LPB (covering most of staple animals) and through a long period of 1996–2019 is collected. And then, the pollutants load from China's LPB is evaluated based on the new discharge coefficients adopted from recent research. The results show that China's LPB overall exhibits approximately 10-year periodic change in scale. And, the average annual wastes from China's LPB is up to 2.39 billion tons (Bt) and shows a continuing increase trend coupled with two significant declines (2006 and 2017). The mean wastes load of the LPB is 13,037 kg/ha. And, higher wastes load was found in southwestern and coastally eastern China and more attention should be paid to coastally eastern China due to dramatic increase of the LPB. Approximately 160,287 million m3 (M m3) of biogas production potential is estimated and greatest contributor of which is cattle. China's LPB has been experiencing a sharp and profound transition, converting from a traditional breeding pattern to an intensive one causing some serious environmental risks, especially in rural areas. Currently, China's government has built up scientific and sound framework, methods, regulations and laws for the LPB environmental impact assessment and management, covering pollutants disposal, productive process and environmentally monitoring system of the LPB. Considering the coexisted goals of food security, economic development and human's welfare, large-scale, organic and planting-breeding balanced LPB should be largely encouraged. This study has provided a fully-covered and exact evaluation on characteristic, role, function and environmental effects of China's LPB, furthermore raised novel and target-oriented optimizing strategies and key fields, which help to promote sustainable development of China's LPB and lowering environmental risks caused by it in the future.

Assessment of land degradation in the North China Plain driven by food security goals

Land degradation directly affects global and regional economic, social development, and food security, which has become a hot and challenging issue in the global ecological field. A successful response to land degradation requires understanding its causes, impacts, and extent. It is also essential to recognize the effects of climate, soil, water, land cover, and socioeconomic factors on land degradation. Therefore, assessing land degradation risk can help prevent and reverse land degradation trends, especially for the main grain production area. The Environmental Sensitivity Area Index (ESAI) was used to identify land degradation sensitive areas in the North China Plain and combined with a random forest model to determine the main drivers affecting land degradation and predict future land degradation sensitive areas. The results show decreasing land degradation risk in the North China Plain. In 2015, the sensitivity of land degradation in the North China Plain had improved. The proportion of land area with high sensitivity to land degradation reduced to 0.02%. Combining the spatial and temporal distribution of ESAI and the prediction results of the random forest model, we know that socio-economic factors have the most significant impact on land degradation sensitivity. Although the risk of land degradation is decreasing, it is still necessary to pay attention to the possible future land degradation risk to stabilize food production. Assessing land degradation risk in North China Plain provides important decision information for rational and sustainable land management and has more vital practical significance.

Agricultural carbon footprint and food security: an assessment of multiple carbon mitigation strategies in China

PurposeTo achieve the dual goals of decarbonization and food security, this paper examines China's carbon footprint reduction in 2050 based on current mitigation strategies.Design/methodology/approachConsidering publications as featured evidence, this study develops an investigation of agricultural decarbonization in China. First, the authors summarize the mitigation strategies for agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the existing literature. Second, the authors demonstrate the domestic food production target in 2050 and the projection target's projected life-cycle-based GHG emissions at the commodity level. Lastly, the authors forecast China's emission removal in the agri-food sector in 2050 concerning current mitigation strategies and commodity productions. The authors highlight the extent to which each mitigation strategy contributes to decarbonization in China.FindingsPractices promoting sustainable development in the agri-food sector significantly contribute to GHG emission removal. The authors find mitigation strategies inhibiting future GHG emissions in the agri-food sector comprise improving nitrogen use efficiency in fertilizers, changing food consumption structure, manure management, cover crops, food waste reduction, dietary change of livestock and covered manure. A 10% improvement in nitrogen use efficiency contributes to 5.03% of GHG emission removal in the agri-food sector by 2050. Reducing food waste and food processing from 30% to 20% would inhibit 1.59% of the total GHG emissions in the agri-food sector.Originality/valueThis study contributes to policy discussions by accounting for agricultural direct and indirect emission components and assessing the dynamic changes in those related components. This study also extends existing research by forecasting to which extent the decarbonization effects implemented by current mitigation strategies can be achieved while meeting 2050 food security in China.

A Review Paper on Agro-food Waste and Food by-Product Valorization into Value Added Products for Application in the Food Industry: Opportunities and Challenges for Cameroon Bioeconomy

Agricultural production, agro-industrial food processing, distribution and consumption generate high Amounts of varied food by-products and waste which place a heavy burden on the environment and cause losses to the food industry. The most common disposal methods of food wastes are the use of landfills and incineration, which lead to several environmental, social, and economic issues. However, many of these by-products and wastes have been reported to be higher than the final product in terms of nutritional or functional properties, making them potential raw materials for application in the agro-food industry. Together with the recent sustainable development goals of food security, environmental protection, and energy efficiency, these are the key reasons why food waste valorization is necessary. Valorization of food waste within the bio-economy approach offers an economical and environmental opportunity that can serve as a solution to the issues faced with the conventional disposal methods. Traditionally, in Africa, especially in Cameroon, food by-products and waste have been valorized into a range of products for application in food and food preparation, including food additives and spices, food emulsifiers and stabilizers, food salts and nutraceuticals. Traditional Waste valorization methods could achieve sustainable development in technologically underdeveloped countries by going beyond improving agro-food waste management to the production of useful biochemicals, food ingredients and food products, which can be referred to as value added products from waste. In addition, the processing and conversion of these agro-food by-products and waste generated in the poor regions of the world for the production and formulation of novel foods and biochemicals will directly benefit the local communities by reducing environmental pollution and increasing income in the food industry. This review aims at providing insight into current trends in food waste valorization using traditional methods in an African country such as Cameroon. This paper presents the variety and type of food waste within the food chain that can be valorized into various products using traditional methods. Furthermore, a series of examples of key food waste valorization schemes and value added products as case studies to demonstrate the advancement in traditional bioconversions are described, bringing out the opportunities and challenges for the Cameroon bioeconomy.

Econometric modelling for estimating of paddy yield and rice production in Melaka, Malaysia

Melaka’s rice industry exhibited a slightly poor performance between 1988 and 2019. The paddy parcel area has decreased from 10,418 ha to 1,837 ha in 32 years. Between 1988 and 2015, the crop intensity factor (CIF) was below 50%. Thus, this research will examine the trend of paddy yield and rice productivity in Melaka from 1988 to 2019 and estimated yield and rice output for 2020 to 2030. This study applies production theory. Data were analyzed using multiple regression with OLS estimation. The findings showed that Melaka paddy production reduced during 1998-1999, 2004-2005 and 2008-2009 due to Asian crisis and global financial crisis. The forecasting study used a 95% confidence range for the average growing rate. Even though paddy output increased by 24.6 percent, the amount forecasted for high paddy yield and rice production in 2030 is unachievable due to high agricultural land needed. Nevertheless, the nuclear paddy is expected to produce more paddy and rice in 2030 than present varieties. Thus, the government should support the development of nuclear paddy varieties, as well as expand paddy parcel area in Melaka. This will assist Malaysia achieve its food security goal of 75% rice self-sufficiency level in the Twelfth Malaysia Plan 2021-2025.

Nanoparticles (NPs) in aquaculture industry: current status and future perspectives

The fastest-growing aquaculture industry plays a crucial role in fulfilling the increased demand for animal protein. However, the outcomes of the sectors are greatly hindered by unexpected disease prevalence, environmental degradation, organic and inorganic pollutants in aquaculture operations, and ineffective feed exploitation to achieve the global food security goal. There has been little research on the impact of nanotechnology on fish nutrition and improved health, despite the fact that the application of nanotechnology in food production systems is being studied globally. In this respect, scientists are generating and inventing new potential ideas and technology to cope with these challenges in aquaculture. Among them, the use of nanoparticles (NPs) has grown in popularity due to their numerous attractive and distinctive features and also tremendous potential to improve aquaculture production. New ideas regarding the application of NPs in fish medicine, drug delivery techniques through NPs, diet formulation to enhance feed efficacy, and as an antiviral or antimicrobial agent to control disease prevalence in aquaculture systems to augment overall production have been discussed. Commercially cultured fish species, including shrimp, Thai koi, Common carp, Grass carp, and Tilapia, have been shown to respond favorably to a variety of nanoparticles (eg. silver, gold, iron, copper, zinc, selenium, and chitosan). Thus nanoparticles researched-based information in finfish and shellfish aquaculture have short-term or long-term prospects and can be used as a potential candidate for nanomedicines combined with fish feed. These new ideas can be studied further before being utilized commercially in the aquaculture fish feed industries and it has huge merit in the future aquaculture need to be considered. Ann. Bangladesh Agric. (2022) 26 (1) : 113-125

Solving groundwater depletion in India while achieving food security

Significant groundwater depletion in regions where grains are procured for public distribution is a primary sustainability challenge in India. We identify specific changes in the Indian Government’s Procurement & Distribution System as a primary solution lever. Irrigation, using groundwater, facilitated by subsidized electricity, is seen as vital for meeting India’s food security goals. Using over a century of daily climate data and recent spatially detailed economic, crop yield, and related parameters, we use an optimization model to show that by shifting the geographies where crops are procured from and grown, the government’s procurement targets could be met on average even without irrigation, while increasing net farm income and arresting groundwater depletion. Allowing irrigation increases the average net farm income by 30%. The associated reduction in electricity subsidies in areas with significant groundwater depletion can help offset the needed spatial re-distribution of farm income, a key political obstacle to changes in the procurement system.

Smart Agriculture Applications Using Deep Learning Technologies: A Survey

Agriculture is considered an important field with a significant economic impact in several countries. Due to the substantial population growth, meeting people’s dietary needs has become a relevant concern. The transition to smart agriculture has become inevitable to achieve these food security goals. In recent years, deep learning techniques, such as convolutional neural networks (CNN) and recurrent neural networks (RNN), have been intensely researched and applied in various fields, including agriculture. This study analyzed the recent research articles on deep learning techniques in agriculture over the previous five years and discussed the most important contributions and the challenges that have been solved. Furthermore, we investigated the agriculture parameters being monitored by the internet of things and used them to feed the deep learning algorithm for analysis. Additionally, we compared different studies regarding focused agriculture area, problems solved, the dataset used, the deep learning model used, the framework used, data preprocessing and augmentation method, and results with accuracy. We concluded in this survey that although CNN provides better results, it lacks in early detection of plant diseases. To cope with this issue, we proposed an intelligent agriculture system based on a hybrid model of CNN and SVM, capable of detecting and classifying plant leaves disease early.

Disentangling the impact of a multiple-component project on SDG dimensions: The case of durum wheat value chain development in Oromia (Ethiopia)

• Smallholder farmer’s participation in agricultural value chains positively affects the achievement of SDG2, SDG4 and SDG16. • Integrated interventions combining multiple components are more effective than stand-alone component interventions (i.e. one component only) in achieving SDGs. • Collective action is key to support smallholder farmer’s agricultural productivity growth and improved food intake. The overall objective of this paper is to assess the impact of a value chain development project – the AVCPO in the Bale region (Oromia, Ethiopia) – on smallholder households focusing on the relationship between the food security goal (SDG2) and other SDG-related outcomes such as education (SDG4) and collective action and social capital (SDG16). Possible co-benefits and synergies among the SDGs are explored using a variety of approaches ranging from instrument variable techniques to evaluate the project overall impact on the various SDGs, multi-valued treatment effect analysis to assess which project component is more effective in achieving the expected impacts, and causal mediation modelling to evaluate to what extent collective action and social capital can play a role in achieving food security and education. Our study shows that the aggregate impact is positive and significant on most of the considered outcomes, namely food security (SDG2) except diet diversification, education (SDG4) of girls but not of boys, and collective action (SDG16), while social capital (SDG16) is significant only as far as horizontal relationships within the community are created. Disentangling the aggregate impact, we show that combined treatments (e.g. training plus storage facilities and marketing through cooperatives) generally return larger impacts than stand-alone treatments (e.g. training only). Finally, our study finds that collective action (SDG16) is an important channel that favors food security improvement (SDG2) but only to a lesser extent better education (SDG4).

Crop harvests for direct food use insufficient to meet the UN’s food security goal

Rising competition for crop usage presents policy challenges exacerbated by poor understanding of where crops are harvested for various uses. Here we create high-resolution global maps showing where crops are harvested for seven broad use categories—food, feed, processing, export, industrial, seed and losses. Yields for food crops are low relative to other crop-use categories. It is unlikely, given current trends, that the minimum calorie requirement to eliminate projected food undernourishment by 2030 will be met through crops harvested for direct food consumption, although enough calories will be harvested across all usages. Sub-Saharan African nations will probably fall short of feeding their increased population and eliminating undernourishment in 2030, even if all harvested calories are used directly as food.

The Role of Indigenous Vegetables to Improve Food and Nutrition Security: Experiences From the Project HORTINLEA in Kenya (2014–2018)

Many warning signs indicate that the food security goals formulated in 2015 will not be achieved. This situation is particularly true for the African continent. After substantial progress up to 2015, the situation has hardly improved or has worsened in many respects. In addition to the rapid population growth, the increasingly frequent long dry periods or sometimes erratic rainfall have contributed to this. In addition, current production systems have dysfunctional side effects due to increasing yield optimization and specialization. Thus, besides the associated resource degradation, it also leads to a monotonous food supply and the emergence of vitamin and mineral deficiencies (hidden hunger). A meaningful way to diversify the food supply is to cultivate and market previously underutilized species. However, they are characterized by not being known and traded globally and usually having only local importance. Accordingly, they have been widely ignored in research. Increasingly, however, there is a growing realization worldwide that these plants can make an essential contribution to food and nutrition security, especially for poorer segments of the population. Moreover, they are adapted to local conditions and are often produced with less resource input. This article aims to show how these species can be better utilized to provide nutritious food through sustainable production, using the example of African indigenous vegetables. In doing so, the impact of emerging social and ecological changes in Kenya will be considered. This source is an interdisciplinary collaborative research project, Horticultural Innovation and Learning for Improved Nutrition and Livelihood in East Africa (HORTINLEA), which was carried out in Kenya from 2014 to 2018. Many different disciplines were involved in the German-African cooperation project. The results will be brought together in this article with the help of a food-sensitive value chain approach, and the experiences gained from this project will be reflected.

Determinants of Sustainability: A Case of Piloting ISARD Models in Oriental Mindoro and Leyte, Philippines

SEARCA, in its 10th five-year plan (10th FYP), implemented the program, Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development (ISARD). A pilot project was undertaken in a specific rural community following a well-defined scheme for an agroecosystem and through the integration of four inter-related components, technical assistance, capacity building, knowledge management, and linkage and networking. After the completion in 2020, evidences of well-developed agricultural system capable of contributing to the goals of food security and poverty alleviation emerged. In its 11th FYP, SEARCA endeavors to scale out the ARD model project in the Southeast Asian region. But, how will this benefit from adopting FAO’s Sustainable Food and Agriculture (SFA)? This central question was addressed by authors in this study. Using an indicator-based assessment approach, the results revealed that the pilot ISARD project, in general, has adopted the SFA principles. It is rated as Good Sustainability, with an overall SFA index of 0.62. To further meet the aspired sustainability through agricultural interventions, the design, delivery, and implementation of ISARD components should include aspects related to facilitating access to productive resources, finance, services for basic infrastructure, protecting water resources, promoting tenure systems to access land, and enhancing nutrition-based programs for the community.

Intense Pasture Management in Brazil in an Integrated Crop-Livestock System Simulated by the DayCent Model

Process-based models (PBM) are important tools for understanding the benefits of Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems (ICLS), such as increasing land productivity and improving environmental conditions. PBM can provide insights into the contribution of agricultural production to climate change and help identify potential greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and carbon sequestration options. Rehabilitation of degraded lands is a key strategy for achieving food security goals and can reduce the need for new agricultural land. This study focused on the calibration and validation of the DayCent PBM for a typical ICLS adopted in Brazil from 2018 to 2020. We also present the DayCent parametrization for two forage species (ruzigrass and millet) grown simultaneously, bringing some innovation in the modeling challenges. We used aboveground biomass to calibrate the model, randomly selecting data from 70% of the paddocks in the study area. The calibration obtained a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.69 and a relative RMSE of 37.0%. During the validation, we used other variables (CO2 flux, grain biomass, and soil water content) measured in the ICLS and performed a double validation for plant growth to evaluate the robustness of the model in terms of generalization. R2 validations ranged from 0.61 to 0.73, and relative RMSE from 11.3 to 48.3%. Despite the complexity and diversity of ICLS results show that DayCent can be used to model ICLS, which is an important step for future regional analyses and large-scale evaluations of the impacts of ICLS.

Long-term green manuring enhances crop N uptake and reduces N losses in rice production system

Green manuring is a potential method for reducing chemical N fertilizer input and reactive N losses to the environment that can achieve dual goals of food security and green development of agriculture. In this study, three long-term field experiments in south China and process-based model (WHCNS_LIXIM model) were combined to examine effects of long-term green manure substitution on soil N supply, crop N uptake, and N losses in rice production system. Results showed that green manure substitution significantly improves soil mineral N by 27.4–94.9% and 1.0–45.0% at jointing and maturity stages, respectively, compared with the use of chemical N alone. Moreover, 18.4–62.2% of crop N uptake increased at the maturity stage at Xinyang and Yujiang sites. The model demonstrated satisfactory performance in modeling dynamics of soil mineral N, crop N uptake, crop dry matter, and grain yield of the rice–green manure system with a determination coefficient (R2) > 0.967 and slope of linear regression equation (β) close to 1.0. Simulated N budgets presented that green manure reduces 20–40% of the chemical N fertilizer input and decreased 5.5%, 25.1%, and 30.6% of N losses by ammonia volatilization, leaching, and runoff, respectively, when green manure application rates (fresh matter) are less than 30 t ha−1. However, the total N loss increased with the increase of green manure application amounts when application amounts are larger than 30 t ha−1. These findings indicated that the further reduction of chemical N fertilizer was needed when the application amount of milk vetch was higher than 30 t ha−1. A milk vetch application of 15–30 t ha−1 was recommended to substitute 20–40% of chemical N fertilizer to improve crop N uptake and reduce N losses, and develop green rice production system in the study areas.

Serving “the Uses of Life”: Gender, History, and Food Security in a Cassava Value Chain Scheme

AbstractGengenbach, Comé, and Nhabinde historicize women’s responses to an agricultural “value chain” in Zavala, Mozambique. Inspired by the Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A), the initiative aims to reduce hunger by converting cassava to industrial use for SABMiller’s Impala beer. Women chafed at the proposed remaking of an agrarian foodway long anchored by this edible commodity. Cassava’s inseparable dietary and market value in precolonial times intensified under Portuguese rule even as colonizers disdained it as a feminine “subsistence” crop and then claimed its commercial potential. Weaponizing this gendered binary yet needing women’s support, the Impala scheme has struggled to achieve GR4A food security goals.

From use efficiency to effective use of nitrogen: A dilemma for maize breeding improvement

Maize (Zea mays L.) breeding is continuously moving forward yield gains for many fields crops, increasing dependency to technology such as high input seed costs and high use of nitrogen (N) fertilizers. For this crop, breeding improvement led to concomitantly enhancing N recovery and uptake but following a similar ratio relative to the plant biomass (W) and nitrogen nutrition index (NNI, as actual to critical N concentration) levels. The aim of this review is to provides new insights related to the true gains of N use efficiency (NUE) for maize over time and to propose new direction to target improvement on the effective use of N. Thus, the increase in fertilizer N for modern hybrids to attain greater yields lead to a greater dependency to N fertilization and potentially increasing the overall environmental risks for N losses associated to this practice. Contrarily to the improvement based on NUE, improving the intrinsic N uptake capacity (more N uptake per unit of biomass) is needed to maximize yield and the effective use of N. These results highlight that crop breeding should refocus to directly target an increase on the effective use of N, increasing the efficiency on using environmental resources while seeking for improving attainable yields. SynopsisEnhancing resilience of our production systems is critical for food security goals. This review highlights the need of investment on directly targeting improvement of the effective use of N not only to improve efficiency but to reduce the dependency to fertilization and environmental risks.

Beyond Least Squares Assumptions: Quantile Regression Estimates of the Heterogeneity in Commercialization–The Case of Sunflower-Producing Households in North West Province, South Africa

The seamless, strong positive relationship across numerous nations, years, livestock, and crops on the welfare effects of commercialization highlights its importance in achieving the United Nations food security goals. This article examines the drivers of commercialization and heterogeneities existing at household levels. Here, the benefit of using a quantile regression technique is compared with the ordinary least square estimate to examine the relationships between smallholder commercialization and predictors. Using 177 observations from a single district in North West Province, South Africa, this paper empirically investigates the auxiliary benefit of the quantile regression technique as a strategic policy instrument to assess determinants and variations of agricultural commercialization. The principal finding of this study indicates that the degree of sunflower commercialization differs significantly across households in the study area. In addition, sunflower commercialization, at mean, is uniquely associated with hectares cultivated for sunflower production, household head, and market outlet. However, the emphasis of the ordinary least square is whether variation counts on average. This supposition may inaccurately depict the response distribution. For this reason, bootstrap quantile regression (QR) was implemented to tackle this limitation. The results of the QR indicate that heterogeneity in sunflower commercialization cannot be disregarded for the case of household size, market outlet, hectares cultivated for sunflower production, education, access to information, and gender. In addition, the market outlet and farming system appear to maintain their significant impact, although with varying magnitudes across all quantiles. Finally, the findings indicate that those in policy space promoting smallholder commercialization should be cognizant of the heterogeneity and potential benefits of efficacious sunflower promotion in South Africa and other African nations.

Monitoring Systemic Change in Inclusive Agribusiness

Evaluations of private sector development programmes look at what changed to the workings of the system, and whether these changes are scalable, resilient, and sustainable. We present an evaluation lens that primarily qualifies changes to the systemic nature of food provisioning in markets. It converts theoretical frameworks into ‘antennae’ receptive to early signs of systemic effects of inclusive agribusiness that fosters food and nutrition security. The tools for this theory-informed approach were developed and applied in 2SCALE, a Dutch-funded programme aiming to incubate inclusive agribusiness and contribute to food and nutrition security goals in Africa. The article reflects on what to monitor to detect early signs of systemic effects and how monitoring can be embedded in unfolding business and partnering processes. It concludes that taking a theory-informed approach gives directionality to strategising and planning, and enhances capacities of partners in inclusive business projects to lead actions towards realising systemic effects.