The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project aims to enhance access to climate information services (CIS) and validated climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies in Africa, to help these countries strengthen the resilience of their agricultural sectors to the threat posed by climate change. Strengthening the capacity of next users, particularly agricultural extension and advisory service (EAS) providers who work to support farmers in Ghana and five other target countries, is crucial for achieving this goal.

Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE) is using a Collect Earth Online through a service co-developed with EcoCiencia and SERVIR-Amazonia (an Alliance – led regional program) to improve forest monitoring data accuracy in the Ecuadorian Amazon and to validate National Monitoring System maps and land cover estimates. MAATE continues to improve the monitoring of forest degradation and to support the provinces and indigenous forest- dependent groups to use the data for decision making.

Through "Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees" (LTACs) and multiple media, timely Agro-Climatic Bulletins are being disseminated to over 130,000 farmers (520,000 beneficiaries) in 351 communities in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and South-Central Coast. Based on a sample survey of 202 farmers in one province, the use of this information has enabled farmers to increase their rice yields and revenue significantly. The LTAC model was developed in Latin America by CIAT and has been successfully adapted to the southeast Asian context.

Ecosystems provide a variety of ecosystem services and functions for mankind, and their sustainable use plays an important role in livelihoods. However, the resulting land degradation due to land use and land cover changes leads to loss of valuable ecosystems and associated ecosystem functions and services. This study takes two highly degraded watersheds, Aba-Bora and Guder, in Ethiopia and uses the value transfer valuation method to estimate changes in ecosystem service values.

Across Africa, banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) severely impacts banana production and livelihoods of millions of small-holder farmers. Mapping vulnerability of landscapes to monitor BBTD establishment and spread is crucial for proactive measures of disease exclusion. To highlight current and future risks of BBTD in Africa, using logistic regression, the relationship between 1160 field-observations from 14 BBTD surveys and environmental covariate maps was determined.

Enhancing Resilience and Advancing Climate Mitigation through a Community-Based Breeding Approach

The objective of the study was to understand end-users' capacity and willingness to purchase products and services scaled through the AICCRA Zambia CSA/CIS bundles. A total of 61 farmers were interviewed through in-person visits (3 for the Solar bundle, 15 for the Aquaculture bundle, 29 for the Seeds bundle, 14 for the Integrated Livestock/Legume bundle). Farmers were interviewed in Central Province (Chibombo, Kapiri Mposhi), Luapula Province (Mansa), and Eastern Province (Chipata, Chipangali, Nyimba).

Based on extensive grower data from PepsiCo, we built climate-yield models specifically for it and came up with results about climate risks and opportunities for its potato production. The results were then translated into actionable insights to incorporate into its sustainability roadmaps. PepsiCo used the Climate Resilience Platform, an online website developed from this project, to identify future climate risks and to better prioritize adaptation practices, thereby increasing its supply chain resilience across 10 countries of its potato program.

The successful integration of a gender and youth perspective in an organisation's work requires an explicit recognition in its overarchning documents. Based on a desk review and analysis of two EAFF strategies through a gender lens, the paper examines the aim and extent of gender and youth integration in EAFF and proposes recommendations to strengthen gender and youth integration in strategies and programmes to enhance the achievement of the organisational goal for the Eastern Africa region.