Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) has rapidly spread in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and has emerged as a major pest of maize and sorghum in the continent. For effective monitoring and a better understanding of the bioecology and management of this pest, a Community-based Fall Armyworm Monitoring, Forecasting, Early Warning and Management (CBFAMFEW) initiative was implemented in six eastern African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi).

The rich agrobiodiversity of China is under unprecedented threat, experiencing a dramatic loss of many valuable local varieties and wild relatives of main crops. The country's formal conservation system of ex situ genebanks faces serious challenges to address this loss. Community seed banks can play a key role to complement the conservation activities of these genebanks and provide other important collective goods, such as evolutionary services, but although they have been around for some 35 years in various parts of the world, in China they have a much shorter history.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Rainforest Alliance (RA) have developed improved practices for climate-smart agriculture in the cocoa sector, summarized under the term climate-smart cocoa (CSC) and is carried out as part of the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

The climate services that are available to farmers and other agricultural value chain actors are quite heterogeneous across sub-Saharan African countries. While the literature highlights widespread gaps between available climate services and the needs of farmers and other decision makers, there has been little published analysis of how or why those gaps vary by country.

Plant breeders’ knowledge of precise traits preferred by variety users would accelerate varietal turnover and widen adoption of newly developed maize varieties in Ghana. The objective of this research was to provide empirical evidence of trait preferences of farmers and other actors in the maize value chain in northern Ghana, based on which research strategies for maize improvement could be formulated. Participatory rural appraisal was conducted in 2016 to determine key traits preferred by maize value chain actors across the three regions in northern Ghana.

The African eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum L.) is an important traditional vegetable cultivated in tropical regions for its edible fruits. In the Benin Republic, S. aethiopicum is mainly cultivated by rural farmers for food and for its use in traditional medicine. Assessing varietal diversity, endogenous knowledge, production constraints and farmers' preference criteria are of great importance for promotion and conservation purposes. Using rural appraisal tools and methods, an ethnobotanical study was conducted in 680 households across 92 villages.

We explore how seed systems enhance access to seeds, and information for climate-change adaptation in farming communities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as how gender-driven roles and institutional dynamics influence the process. Men and women farmers equally experience climate-change related effects, including drought, short rainy seasons and increased pest and disease incidence. Our study relies on exploratory data analysis of 1001 households surveyed in four sites in 2016.

Sustainable Public Food Procurement (PFP) represents a key game changer for food systems transformation. It can influence both food consumption and food production patterns. It can deliver multiple social, economic and environmental benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets.
This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination and use of PFP as a development tool in particular in the case of school meals programmes.

In South Asia, the CGIAR-led innovation of bundled agricultural technologies (including index-based flood insurance, climate resilient seeds and agroclimatic services), relying on advanced tools and modeling including satellite data, speeded payouts to over 15,000 flood-affected farm households, indirectly benefitting another 125,000 farmers who learned from participating neighbors. Governments and insurance companies are beginning to scale out these new products to farmers, including women, in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Natural forest regrowth is critical for restoring ecosystem services in degraded landscapes and providing forest resources. Those who control tenure and access rights to these secondary forest areas determine who benefits from economically charged off-farm opportunities such as finance for forest restoration, selling carbon credits, and receiving payment for ecosystem services.

In almost all forms of agriculture and farming practice, land clearing is the initial step. In Indonesia, in general, the most cost effective means of clearing land is through the use of fire. However, this use of fire often results in uncontrolled outbreaks, particularly in lowland areas especially and during prolonged dry seasons. In recent years, these uncontrolled fire outbreaks have had a catastrophic environmental, social and economic impact.