International research cooperation on world nutrition
With the aim of improving the global food situation, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) is funding the development of partnerships between research institutes for agricultural and nutritional sciences in Germany and countries of the Global South.
Within the scope of international research cooperation on global food security, the BMEL is funding research cooperation between research institutes in Germany and sub-Saharan Africa as well as between Germany and South and South East Asia – with the aim of elaborating needs-oriented insights and solutions regarding the multi-faceted subject of global food security.
In addition, interregional cooperation and cross-border knowledge-sharing are intended to strengthen the development of research networks, establish long-term partnerships and contribute towards local capacity development. In this context, it is essential to apply participatory, practice-oriented, application-oriented, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research approaches. The project executing agency, the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), is responsible for the administrative management and technical support of international research projects on behalf of the BMEL.
The basis for this funding instrument is the “Directive on the funding of international research cooperation for global food security”. Based on this directive, the BMEL has funded three calls for research proposals since 2013. These have contributed towards improving the food situation in target regions along the value chain. In the current call, the BMEL placed the focus on exploring and further developing innovative, sustainable production systems in the Global South. The following overview refers to calls for research proposals and the respectively funded projects:
Projects:
- Nutrition – diversified agriculture for balanced nutrition (2013)
- Processing – innovative approaches to processing local food in Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia, contributing to improved nutrition as well as reducing qualitative and quantitative losses (2016)
- Food environments – shaping food environments to support healthy diets (2019)
- Production systems – innovative and sustainable production systems (2022)
In addition to these calls, the BMEL is funding targeted research cooperation on current issues and is supporting international conferences in order to strengthen international knowledge-sharing.
Research projects
- AfriNutriForest - Senegal, Kenya
- FEMOZ - Mozambique
- FETE - Ghana, Malaysia South Africa,Tanzania
- FoCo-Active - Tanzania
- Food-SAMSA - South Africa
- NaviNut - Benin, Kenya
- NIFAM - Vietnam, Myanmar
- NutriAide - India
- SIFS-CLIM, India
- SolFood, Kenya
- SusCaMi - Ethiopia
