Nature: Ending hunger: science must stop neglecting smallholder farmers
Editorial Board

“…[W]hy aren’t more researchers answering more practical questions about ending hunger that are relevant to smallholder farmers? Many of the key reasons can be traced to the changing priorities of international agricultural-research funding. During the past four decades, funding provision for this type of research has been shifting towards the private sector … Increasingly, university research-strategy teams want their academics to bid for larger grants … Publishers also bear some responsibility. … National research agencies, too, need to listen, because they are the major funding source for researchers in universities. There’s a place for collaborating with big businesses, but achieving the SDG to end hunger will require an order of magnitude more research engagement with smallholders and their families. Their needs — and thus the route to ending hunger — have been neglected for too long” (10/12).