Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk & Resilience (MRR Innovation Lab)

So every rural family can take control of their future

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk and Resilience (MRR) at UC Davis develops and tests financial and market innovations that take the most promising agricultural tools for families in developing economies from the lab to the field. The Lab’s mission is to generate and transfer knowledge and innovations that promote resilience and empower rural families, communities and markets to share in inclusive agricultural growth.

The MRR Innovation Lab focuses the most advanced tools in development economics and related fields on three core themes:

  • Resilient Escapes from Poverty: Bundled programs that can have a bigger and more lasting impact on persistent poverty than the sum of their parts.
  • Financial and Agronomic Innovations for Inclusive Growth and Resilience: Expanding the potential of insurance, stress-tolerant seeds and other tools to manage the risk of drought, flood or other disasters.
  • Resilient Systems for Broadly-based Agricultural Growth: Ensuring that markets and other social systems are competitive and do not bypass women and young people.

In addition to funding research and building the capacity of local institutions, the MRR Innovation Lab translates their work into accessible policy documents and sponsor outreach events that integrate our findings into a coherent and effective voice about priorities and options for governments, NGOs and others working to reduce poverty and increase prosperity worldwide.

Latest news and articles

Meet the Catalytic Grant Winners from the COP27 Resilience Hub

Four teams will be awarded with a $5000 USD grant. The award is a joint effort from Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF), Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), and International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD).

Trees of hope: How Kurna people planted trees to adapt to the climate crisis

The members of the Kurna Community are addressing climate change impacts by using nature-based solutions such as afforestation. This is the twelfth of the ‘Voices from the Frontline (Phase-II)’ stories by ICCCAD and GRP.

Challenging established practices in the coffee industry

Coffee is one of the world’s most traded commodities, but many smallholder farmers struggle to access profitable markets. In Uganda, Mountain Harvest is working together with farmers to change this.

Promoting Indigenous Knowledge to strengthen community led adaptation 

Smallholder farmers in the Umzingwane district from the southern part of Zimbabwe are taking up locally-led initiatives and indigenous knowledge to adapt to unpredictable climate patterns. This is the eleventh of the ‘Voices from the Frontline (Phase-II)’ stories by ICCCAD and GRP.

From debt cycle to self-resilience: A Story from the small village of Datinakhali

In Datinakhali, Bangladesh, a cooperative savings fund is helping local women diversify their livelihoods to adapt to climate change. This is the tenth of the ‘Voices from the Frontline (Phase-II)’ stories by ICCCAD and GRP.