• Estimating effects of highly processed food (HPF) taxes on obesity and underweight. • Trade liberalization mitigates underweight but aggravates obesity prevalence in SSA. • Taxes on HPF reduce obesity, increase underweight but effects differ by region, income, gender. • Magnitude of consumption taxes needs to be very substantial to have a notable effect. • Integrated policy framework considering both issues simultaneously is required.

Reducing food losses and waste (FLW) is one of the sustainable ways of closing the food requirement gap in developing countries. However, there is not yet adequate knowledge on the extent of FLW by commodity type and stage of the food supply chain (FSC). Focusing on ten agrarian countries in Africa and building mainly on the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Balance Sheets (FBSs), this study generates some new insights on the level of FLW by country, FSC and food type. Across the FSC, we find that these countries lose a cumulative amount equivalent to 28% (641 kilocalories per capita per day – kcal/cap/day) of the current calorie intake. Within the FSC, the production and post-harvest handling stages contribute the greater shares of the total losses with 38% or 244 kcal/cap/day and 34% or 218 kcal/cap/day, respectively. Our results also show that farm incomes would increase by 20% if the avoidable losses and waste were recovered. These results are troublesome given the level of poverty and food insecurity in these countries and suggest inefficient and unsustainable use of natural resources (water and cropland) associated with the FSC losses.

Rapid expansion of groundwater use for irrigation for dry season rice production in Bangladesh has led to overuse, deterioration of groundwater quality, increased cost of irrigation, and higher greenhouse gas emissions. The divergence between marginal private and social cost of irrigation due to market failures in the presence of these externalities, has resulted in excessive use of groundwater. A combination of policy reforms and improvements in irrigation practices are hence needed to reduce irrigation water use. The paper analyses why an improved irrigation practice, known as “alternate wetting and drying (AWD)” that can potentially reduce irrigation water use substantially, has failed to scale despite widespread testing and promotion in Bangladesh for over a decade. The main reason for this failure to scale is the lack of economic incentives to save water as pricing is based on per unit area irrigated, not on the amount of water used. This paper highlights the dynamics of the water market and pricing in Bangladesh, along with biophysical and social constraints to farmer adoption of AWD. It also proposes changes in policy incentives, new directions for crop and water management research, and institutional reforms for wider adoption of AWD and other water-saving practices.

Despite impressive success in molecular physiological understanding of photosynthesis, and preliminary evidence on its potential for quantum shifts in agricultural productivity, the question remains of whether increased photosynthesis, without parallel fine-tuning of the associated processes, is enough. There is a distinct lack of formal socio-economic impact studies that address the critical questions of product profiling, cost–benefit analysis, environmental trade-offs, and technological and market forces in product acceptability. When a relatively well understood process gains enough traction for translational value, its broader scientific and technical gap assessment, in conjunction with its socio-economic impact assessment for success, should be a prerequisite. The successes in the upstream basic understanding of photosynthesis should be integrated with a gap analysis for downstream translational applications to impact the farmers’ and customers’ lifestyles and livelihoods. The purpose of this review is to assess how the laboratory, the field, and the societal demands from photosynthesis could generate a transformative product. Two crucial recommendations from the analysis of the state of knowledge and potential ways forward are (i) the formulation of integrative mega-projects, which span the multistakeholder spectrum, to ensure rapid success in harnessing the transformative power of photosynthesis; and (ii) stipulating spatiotemporal, labour, and economic criteria to stage-gate deliverables.