As more Voluntary Sustainability Standards/Systems (VSS) increase their efforts to address gender inequality in agri-food value chains, the timing is ripe to reflect on progress to inform future strategies and research. This paper revisits the body of evidence on VSS and gender equality through the lens of SDG5.5 specifically, to identify if and especially how VSS may support women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership in decision-making in rural communities.

The manual is designed to assist the reader with information about soybean value chain and its management in times of climate change. It is comprised of six chapters of coordinated content as summarized below. First chapter of this manual is focused on the soybean and its development and also describes the status of soybean in Uganda and its significance.

Despite their potential to diversify diets and improve nutrition, little is known about the consumption and utilization of indigenous fruits (IFs) in the Philippines. This desk review compiles and analyses different initiatives targeting the conservation and promotion of these lesser-known fruits, based on secondary data that were gathered from published and unpublished literature between 2012 to 2022. Most of the literature gathered focused on the evaluation of the functional properties of IFs and product development.

Beef is a major source of animal protein across the globe and its consumptions increases annually. Globally beef consumption is expected to reach 72 million t by 2025 from 70 million t in 2021 (OECD–FAO 2021). In Africa annual beef production was over 45 million kgs in each of 26 countries (FAOSTAT). In Uganda beef production had highest growth rate of 6.5% between 2001 and 2010 (FAOSTAT) and in 2018 was estimated at 217 million kgs (UBoS 2018). For the past 50 years, beef consumption in Uganda has been growing at a rate of 2%.

These slides were used during the Stakeholders’ Consultation Meeting on Agrifood value chains in Odisha Challenges and Opportunities, at Auditorium, Department of Agriculture & Farmers' Empowerment (Krushi Bhavan) Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India on 29 November 2023.

Livestock production in Ethiopia has been constrained by feed shortage, low quality and seasonal fluctuations. The use of high-yielding, good quality and drought-tolerant forage legumes like alfalfa and vetch has been suggested to overcome the feed constraints. These forage legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen when being in symbiosis with rhizobia, but show variations in terms of N2-fixation, calling for exploring the best symbionts.

The purpose of the 2022 Annual workshop of the project “Development and Scaling of Sustainable Feeds
for Resilient Aquatic Food Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (FASA)” was to bring together project partners
to meet in person, discuss the overall project goal and the specific project activities in each country, and
conduct the 2023 annual planning for the FASA project.

Planted forests are critical to climate change mitigation and constitute a major supplier of timber/non-timber products and other ecosystem services. Globally, approximately 36% of planted forest area is located in East Asia. However, reliable records of the geographic distribution and tree species composition of these planted forests remain very limited.

As agrifood stakeholders increasingly strive to contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment, it is critical that they develop effective gender-responsive monitoring systems to track progress and guide decision-making. This brief aims to:
• Provide an overview of gender-responsive monitoring approaches, including suggested steps and elements for those seeking to develop or improve their monitoring approaches;
• Offer a curated shortlist of turnkey resources appropriate for different agrifood stakeholders; and

Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Walp is a well-known agroforestry leguminous tree that provides multiple benefits in different agroecological zones. Its apparent versatility is seen in improving animal feed, cleaning environmental wastes, and healing inflammations. It was also found to have significant benefits in agroforestry due to its ability to enhance soil fertility through nitrogen fixation and green manure. However, this article reviews the use of Gliricidia sepium to improve soil fertility and crop agronomic and nutritional properties.

We conducted a preliminary value chain actors mapping for major crops grown and livestock kept by smallholder farmers in Mbire and Murehwa districts of Zimbabwe. Accordingly, in this report we mapped value chain actors for 11 crops and livestock commodities: namely, sorghum, cotton, sesame, maize, groundnut, sweet-potato, vegetables (tomato and onion), cattle, goats, poultry, and honey/beekeeping. Except sesame from Mbire, most of the crop and livestock commodities are channeled to the main markets in Harare and Marondera for Murehwa.