Agritech-toolbox: It consists of an application that lets you know which agricultural technologies will have the greatest impact on productivity and food security in the region by 2050. The toolbox was developed this year by IFPRI, together with the report "Food Security in a World of Growing Natural Resource Scarcity.? The report reviews 11 agricultural traditional and modern technologies and how useful these can be in contributing to feeding the world and managing scares natural resources wisely.

I have got an opportunity to share my insights regarding the toolbox effectiveness in my region. Here is the content what I have shared about my region, Nepal.

"Malnutrition rates in Nepal are among the highest in the world 41% of children under 5 are stunted and 29% are underweight. Our food security status is so tragic if policymakers do not judiciously select the best technologies to invest and encourage the condition will only get worse.

Rice, maize and wheat are major staple crops in our region. In Nepal, rice alone covers 43.02% of total cereal production in terms of area cultivated, followed by maize (26.05%) and wheat (22.06%).

This toolbox shows there is huge potential for these crops there could be a yield increase of up to 91.4% for wheat and a 35.7% yield increase for maize using no-till technology. No-till technology is already being practiced in our region and is giving satisfactory results. Other technologies like Integrated Pest Management (IPM), use of drought tolerance varieties, different irrigation systems and crop protection from diseases, insects and weeds are also popular and in use but are limited within progressive farmers. Limited resources, lack of technical knowhow, unavailability of resources in time and in need and geographical condition of the country are barriers that are stopping farmers using agricultural technologies.

Recently the Nepalese government unveiled its National Budget for the fiscal year 2014/15 and the commercialization of agriculture was a major priority. 23.28 billion Nepalese rupees has been allocated for agriculture and 18.10 billion allocated for irrigation. Subsidies and rebate in purchasing of farm machineries is also allocated. As the Nepalese government is trying its best to increase the agricultural production and meet the national demand of the food it is worthwhile for them to go through this toolbox as it reflects major technologies being practiced in country and their expected yield in interaction with climate and irrigation.

Judicious use of available resources along with different technologies cited could build good impact in increasing yield of our region. This toolbox is really helpful and has set new milestone for agriculture activists."

This was initially published in this Link , you can follow the mentioned link to read some others insights about the toolbox.

If you want to know more about your region using the toolbox follow the link agritech-toolbox