Rainfed agriculture is at the centre of many West African economies and a key livelihood strategy in the region. Highly variable rainfall patterns lead to a situation in which farmers’ investments to increase productivity are very risky and will become more risky with climate change. Process-based cropping system models are a key tool to assess the impact of weather variability and climate change, as well as the effect of crop management options on crop yields, soil fertility and farming system resilience and widely used by the West African scientific community.

Are the forest conservation practices sustained after Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programmes end? Using a sample of 268 (former) PES recipients and non-recipients from the Budongo-Bugoma PES programme in Western Uganda, we employ the before-after-control–intervention (difference-in-difference) approach to estimate the PES programme outcome on their privately owned forests. PES is associated with less deforestation during the operational period, but the link has vanished four years after programme termination.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a predominant food security crop in several developing countries. Its storage roots, rich in carbohydrate, are deficient in essential micronutrients, including provitamin A carotenoids.
Increasing carotenoid content in cassava storage roots is important to reduce the incidence of vitamin A deficiency, a public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. However, cassava improvement advances slowly, mainly due to limited information on the molecular factors influencing β-carotene accumulation in cassava.

Present global maps of soil water retention (SWR) are mostly derived from pedotransfer functions (PTFs) applied to maps of other basic soil properties. As an alternative, ‘point-based’ mapping of soil water content can improve global soil data availability and quality. We developed point-based global maps with estimated uncertainty of the volumetric SWR at 100, 330 and 15 000 cm suction using measured SWR data extracted from the WoSIS Soil Profile Database together with data estimated by a random forest PTF (PTF-RF).

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), The Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI), the Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research in Africa (AICCRA), and the Amhara Livestock and Fisheries Resource Development Office organized a workshop that took place on May 29, 2023, in Bahir Dar Ethiopia.

The One CGIAR Research Initiative on “Rethinking Food Markets and Value Chains for Inclusion and Sustainability” commissioned a meta-study to review the available evidence and to identify knowledge gaps regarding the impacts on employment in agrifood value chains (AVC) integration and modernization processes in developing countries. This review included 290 texts, mostly journal articles, but also book chapters and reports.

Accurate estimates of habitat extent and rates of change are crucial inputs for the global, regional, and national assessments that guide policy-making and prioritize strategies. This can contribute to an understanding of ecosystems in the landscape for their use, management, and preservation. Mangroves are one of the types of ecosystems in which estimation discrepancies have been analyzed to determine the impacts of data quality on conservation and policy-making.

This policy brief sheds light on the incentives that can promote deforestation-free cocoa production in Colombia. It proposes steps that decision-makers can take to support Colombia’s vision of a zero-deforestation cocoa supply chain.

In order to safeguard countries from quarantine risks (insect pests, pathogens, nematodes, parasitic weeds) associated with the movement of legume (faba bean, lentil, chickpea, grasspea) and cereal (wheat and barley) germplasm, ICARDA’s Germplasm Health Unit (GHU) follows a regulatory and quarantine program implemented in close collaboration with competent institutions where ICARDA has platforms for crop breeding, germplasm multiplication and evaluation and genetic resources exchange.

Seeds of cereals (wheat, barley) and legumes (faba bean, lentil, chickpea, grasspea) are important exchange materials for farming, crop production, and research at national, regional, and international levels, but with the exchanges comes the danger of introducing new pests (fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes, and insects). ICARDA’s Germplasm Health Unit (GHU) is responsible for the monitoring, clearance, and documentation of safe germplasm movement at the Center.

Shrimp is Bangladesh’s main agricultural export and makes a substantial contribution to the economy of southern Bangladesh, but the sector has a checkered history. Bangladesh’s shrimp production and exports have been in steady decline, since peaking in the early 2010’s. Most shrimp exports from Bangladesh are used by the food service and niche ethnic markets in Europe.

We are pleased to report that NEXUS Gains has made substantial progress since its launch in April 2022, as outlined in our annual technical report. Energy, food production, and ecosystems are driven by water, which is central to our nexus approach. To ensure the sustainability of the program, we have invested considerable time in building teams and partnerships in our target basins. We have also made substantial progress in building water–energy–food–environment (WEFE) knowledge and capacities, and women’s leadership capacities.