As befits a CGIAR Challenge Program , the CPWF has welcomed a wide range of stake holders and partners in accord with their ability to achieve program goals. Decision on research investments (project selection) have been based on a competitive grants in which proposal quality was evaluated by an interdependent external panel. The usual weakness of a competitive grants approach - lack of coherence in research agenda has been address by Basin Focal Projects and synthesis research.

There are many options for enhancing food production from fish in managed aquatic systems.The most appropriate technology, however, will vary from place to place, and the conditions under which one technology is prefered over another are still not well defined.

Food Security continues to be elusive in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), several decades after the first World Food Summit in 1974. The causes of food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa include among others; poverty, economic constraints, agricultural and agronomical challenges, rapid population growth, and the effects of adverse climate change. These causes however, are linked to complex interactions, constraints and dependencies amongst the key physical resources in food systems, namely – Water, Land, Energy and Soil Nutrients (WLEN). There is limited insight on the combined impacts of the resource nexus, and how this may constrain the performance of food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. This understanding is essential if the food challenges in the region are to be tackled sustainably.This study provides a detailed analysis of the Uganda’s 2012 WLEN nexus resources vis-à-vis the country’s current and potential food demand using calorific-demand analysis and source-to-service resource transformation modelling. The analysis determines estimates of the current resource stresses within Uganda’s insufficient food system and the interconnected resource implications for the achievement of food security by 2050. The results are visualised using Sankey diagrams. The inferences highlight evident limits across all four resources. Overall, the analysis helps to inform food security policy and the resource context for the present and future management of Uganda’s food system.

Despite efforts to achieve food security in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) since the 1970s, food insufficiency continues to plague the region. As of 2014 more than a fifth of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population remain food insecure according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). The food security challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa are linked to economic, agro-ecological, technological/agronomic, institutional and related factors. These causes however overlay complex interactions and constraints within the key physical resources of Water Land and Energy (WLE), which are necessary for food production, processing, distribution and consumption. The relationship between the WLE interactions and the performance of SSA’s food systems, and the impacts of interventions at different scales are not yet fully understood, particularly in light of the need to maintain essential ecosystem services.This study employs an integrated multi-scale Food System resource analysis approach to examine Uganda’s WLE resource constraints vis-à-vis 2012 and 2050 agricultural resource demand at national, district and local scales, as a test case for Sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis identifies where the competing WLE resource constraints are and the variations from local (sub-county), regional, to national scale so that potential policy interventions can be appropriately targeted. The approach involves a combination of geo-spatial analysis, calorific-demand analysis and Source-to-Service resource transformation modelling. The results are visualised using coupled Sankey diagrams and resource stress maps. The analysis reveals the current competing demands and constraints at different scales, and helps to identify key resource intervention areas to resolve resource stress in Uganda’s food system. The inferences highlight variations in the significance of resource stress at different analytical resolutions and constraints at different locations for the WLE resources. Overall, the analysis helps to inform food security policy and the resource context for the present and future management of Uganda’s food system.

This reports summarizes and synthesizes activities and achievements of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) through the end of 2007. The CPWF is an intiative of the CGIAR designed to take on the global challenge of water scarcity and food security. It is an international, multi-institutional researchfor- development initiative that brings together scientists, development specialists and river basin communities, and seeks to create and disseminate international public goods (IPGs) helpful in achieving food security, reducing poverty, improving livelihoods, reducing agriculture–related pollution, and enhancing environmental security. The CPWF conducts its research on water and food in nine ‘benchmark’ river basins, organized around five different themes. This work is being implemented through competitive-call projects, Basin Focal Projects (BFPs), small grant projects and synthesis research. This report is one example of the latter. Projects and outputs Part of the CPWF’s work has focused on increasing water productivity in rainfed environments. Achievements include the further development of conservation agriculture for no-till sowing into crop residues; “slash and mulch” to replace “slash and burn” practices in hillside agriculture; water harvesting systems for dryland locations; understanding livelihood vulnerability and farmers’ coping strategies; and developing and encouraging the distribution—through community ‘participatory’ varietal selection and seed schemes—of drought-tolerant sorghum, wheat, and other crops. Progress has also been made in increasing water productivity in irrigated and salt-affected environments, especially where water is scarce and there are opportunities to increase its productivity. Examples include the development and testing of salt-tolerant germplasm for rice and other crops to make more effective use of salt-affected areas; understanding how to use wastewater in irrigated peri-urban agriculture to produce safe and nutritious vegetables; and developing aerobic rice germplasm and management practices to produce more rice with less water.

The major landslide of 2010 in Bududa district in Eastern Uganda is the most catastrophic natural disaster in Uganda's recorded history. An estimated 350 people died and some of the affected were resettled in Kiryandongo district. We assessed housing, water and sanitation practises of affected households and controls to establish possible implications on food insecurity and diet diversity.This cross-sectional study assessed 1078 affected and control households in Bududa and Kiryandongo districts. The head of the households were either affected, selected from landslide disaster-affected communities, or controls from a random sub-county bordering the affected. Structured interviews were used and entries were tested statistically to report crude estimates based on the Pearson x² and ANOVA, while adjusted analysis used multivariate analysis of co-variance (MANCOVA) and Wald's Odds Ratio (OR) of Binary Logistic Regression at the 95% CI.On adjusting for the disaster and covariates, households who had insufficient access to water scored higher mean (SE) on food insecurity than those who reported sufficient access: 13.1 (0.4) vs. 9.5 (0.3) (P < 0.01). Intriguingly, households who owned a toilet and those who reported always using soap to wash hands scored higher food insecurity than their counterparts: 11.1 (0.3) vs. 9.0 (0.6) (P < 0.01) and 11.3 (0.3) vs. 9.1 (0.5) (P < 0.01), respectively. However, not owning a toilet increased the likelihood of being food insecure (OR 3.43; 95% CI 1.31, 8.97; P = 0.02). In Kiryandongo, affected households scored higher food insecurity than controls: 9.5 (0.5) vs. 5.4 (0.5) (P < 0.01) and higher diet diversity scores (DDS): 6.7 (0.2) vs. 6.2 (0.2) (P = 0.04). Type of housing also predicted food insecurity (P < 0.01) and DDS (P = 0.03). Like Bududa, households with insufficient water access scored higher food insecurity while those owning toilet scored higher DDS. Uniquely, only number of rooms was linked to a high likelihood of being food insecure (OR 1.60; 95% CI 1.19, 2.15; P < 0.05).Disaster, food security and diet were sensitive to housing, water and sanitation and were integral to an adequate standard of living of victims of this landslide.