Shortening of the growing season despite a longer thermally favorable period implies that vegetation on the Tibetan Plateau is unable to exploit additional thermal resources availed by climate change. Ecosystem composition may no longer be well attuned to the local temperature regime, which has changed rapidly over the past three decades. This apparent lag of the vegetation assemblage behind changes in climate should be taken into account when projecting the impacts of climate change on ecosystem processes.

Composite agricultural systems with permanent maize cultivation in the uplands and irrigated rice in the valleys are very common in mountainous southeast Asia. The soil loss and fertility decline of the upland fields is well documented, but little is known about reallocation of these sediments within the landscape. In this study, a turbidity-based linear mixed model was used to quantify sediment inputs, from surface reservoir irrigation water and from direct overland flow, into a paddy area of 13 ha. Simultaneously, the sediment load exported from the rice fields was determined.

In Nepal, more than 90% of cereal seed flows from informal systems and there are regions and groups of farmers that are not connected at all to any seed networks with external seed supply. Nepal's agricultural policies and formal institutions are promoting the development of the formal seed system. However, knowledge gaps exist on the opportunities and challenges for smallholder farmers when formal seed systems are becoming accessible.

The Review of CGIAR Research Program Governance and Management was requested by the CGIAR Consortium and

approved by the Fund Council in November 2012. The Independent Evaluation Arrangement (IEA) is responsible for the review, which was carried out between June 2013 and January 2014. At the time the review was initiated, Consortium Research Programs (CRP) governance and management structures were in place or approved for each CRP. This enabled

Rwanda’s variable and changing climate is an increasingly serious challenge to the country’s

agricultural sector and farming population. Climate information services are emerging as a

means to support farmers to manage risk and provide an opportunity to build the resilience of

agriculture to climate at all time scales. Climate services include historical, monitored and

forecast information, and value-added information products such pest and disease risk

warnings, crop yield forecasts, or management advisories. The new Rwanda Climate Services

Land degradation due to soil erosion is a major issue in the Ethiopian Highlands. Deforestation leads to ongoing gully erosion during the rainy season (June to September) and thus the hydrology of a watershed changes as dense gully networks cause direct drainage of rain water. To better understand watershed scale gully processes in the Ethiopian Highlands, three gauging stations were installed in the 56 km2 large Gumara-Maksegnit catchment in the northern Amhara region, to monitor discharge and sediment load in the gullies during rainy season.

? The Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program II

(RDCP) was estimated to have resulted in a

strong decrease in the GHG emissions intensity

of milk production, defined as the GHG

emissions per unit (liter) of milk produced.

Extensive cattle production systems reduced

their GHG emission intensity by an estimated -

4.11 tCO2e per 1000 l of milk (-60%), while

intensive production systems reduced their

intensity by an estimated -1.7 tCO2e/1000 l (-

47%). The decrease in GHG emission intensity

The CGIAR Water, Land and Ecosystems research project on Targeting Agricultural Innovations and Ecosystem Services in the northern Volta basin (TAI) is a two year project (2014-2016) led by Bioversity International in collaboration with 11 institutes: CIAT, CIRAD, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), King’s College London (KCL), SNV World Burkina Faso (SNV), Stanford University, Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), University of Development Studies Ghana (UDS), University of Minnesota, University of Washington, and the World Agroforestry Institute.

The agricultural development project Resilience and Economic Growth in Arid Lands – Accelerated Growth (REGAL-AG) has promoted improved livestock management that resulted in a decrease in net emissions of 10%. Since emissions from livestock account for the majority of Kenya’s agricultural emissions (95%), reduction of emissions in the livestock sector has high potential impact.

Rangeland resources are among the most important – and almost certainly the most neglected – agro ecosystem component in dry areas. They are the largest land-use category, home to the poorest segment of the population, and crucial for millions of small-scale livestock producers. The availability of grazing resources for livestock in the world’s drylands is low and erratic due to the recurrent droughts in which animals can often fall victim.