John Oboum’s climate-smart small-scale farm site in Western Kenya (photo credit: CCAFS / Cecilia Schubert).

‘One of the most urgent challenges we face in the next several decades is feeding a growing world population without irreparably damaging Earth’s land, air and water systems. Nearly 800 million people worldwide are undernourished today. The U.N.‘s Sustainable Development Goals call for ending hunger and achieving food security by 2030. . . .

‘Since 2000, [hunger] has decreased across all regions of the world, but 50 countries—mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia—still have alarming or severe hunger rates.

‘At the Global Landscapes Initiative in the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, our research focuses on increasing global food security while reducing harmful impacts from agriculture to Earth’s natural resources.

We have found that one key strategy to combating food insecurity—lack of access to nutritious foods—is increasing food production on small…