Highlights of IFPRI's partnerships and impacts in China 2013
In the wake of the food crises of the early 1970s and the resulting World Food Conference of 1974, a group of innovators realized that food security depends not only on agricultural production, but also on the policies that affect food systems from farm to table. In response, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) was founded in 1975 to provide evidence-based policy options to sustainably end poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. For more than 30 years, China has undergone economic reforms and development that have led to successful economic growth and poverty reduction. The country has also made considerable efforts to reduce the income gap between urban and rural populations, balance regional development, and conserve natural resources. In 2003, IFPRI developed a strategy specifically tailored to its work in China and expanded its national program. In collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, IFPRI established the International Center for Agricultural and Rural Development that same year to coordinate the Institute’s pro-poor research and activities in China and East Asia. As food policy problems have developed over time, so too has the focus of IFPRI’s research—from agricultural research and development, public investment, food subsidies, and commercialization of agriculture to social safetynet programs, rural-urban linkages, water policy, climate change, and a green economy. What has remained constant, however, is the importance of shared knowledge and strong partnerships to develop strategies and successfully implement them. IFPRI’s key partners in China include the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (housing IFPRI’s China program since 1996), the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, China Agricultural University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guizhou University, the International Poverty Reduction Center in China, Nanjing Agricultural University, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the University of International Business and Economics, and Zhejiang University. This brochure highlights some of IFPRI’s major projects, partnerships, and knowledge-sharing activities in China in recent years.