Landscape restoration initiatives often have the potential to result in environmental gains, but the question of whether these gains are sustainable and how they are linked to other community needs (social, productivity and economic gains) remains unclear. We use the Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework (SIAF) to demonstrate how environmental benefits are linked to productivity, environment, social, human, and economic components. Using the SIAF, the standardization of relevant indicators across multiple objectives provided a contextual representation of sustainability.

Despite increasing sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) investments, indicators for detecting gender and intergenerational inequities in SAI costs and benefits sharing often remain overgeneralized, theoretical, or locally irrelevant. We examine the relative value of, and how to, customize standard SAI indicators to detect such inequities in specific socio-cultural contexts to enhance data collection for evidence-based decision making in fostering gender/youth inclusive SAI.

Tanzania is a major sweetpotato producer in sub-Saharan Africa. The area under sweetpotato
has been rising steadily relative to main food staples. However, the yields have stagnated at
around 4 t/ha compared with the potential yield of above 20 t/ha, partly due to limited access
to quality seeds. Most farmers in SSA recycle seed from the previous crop or source from
neighbours. This increases the probability of accumulating viruses, which may reduce the
sweetpotato yield by over 50%.

Sweetpotato breeders have strived to breed varieties that address productivity challenges that farmers face in SSA. However, adoption rates for the new varieties are usually low. This has been attributed to the fact that such varieties rarely meet the gendered preferences of the end users in terms of preferred traits and characteristics. This study sought to identify key preferred traits and characteristics by women and men farmers in Manhica and Marracuenne districts, Mozambique.

Agriculture and other land-use sectors play a major role in the global response to climate change – as a large source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as a carbon sink, and as a sector vulnerable to climate extremes and variability. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are important policy instruments under the Paris Agreement that guide national climate actions in the near to short term. While most Southern African countries have included agriculture in their current NDCs, many lack sector-specific, quantifiable commitments to drive targeted action.

This article highlights evidence and lessons learned from the InnovAfrica project conducted by the Agricultural Research Council in collaboration with other international organizations between 2017 and 2021. This project aimed to test and upscale best-bet Sustainable Agricultural Intensification (SAI) practices through Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) and improved dissemination strategies across six African countries (viz. Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania). The goal of the project was to improve the food and nutritional security of smallholder farmers in Africa.

Guyana is highly exposed to climate extremes with significant flooding risk for coastal regions, and more frequent drought events affecting subsistence agricultural activities in the hinterlands. Future climate scenarios show an increase in climate extremes.
The agriculture sector requires a transformation toward climate-resilient agriculture systems. Gender and social inclusion are of great significance for the successful transformation to climate-resilient farming in Guyana.

This study asks whether there is utility in knowing who sources soybean seed within the household and why when explaining variation in seed obtained from the formal versus informal sector. Survey data collected in Malawi in 2018 were used to explore the question. Results suggest that the identity of the person who sources seed has little to do with whether the seed was obtained from the formal sector. Instead, why the person sources soybean seed is the better predictor.

This user evaluation report focuses on extension workers’ experiences with using the Maize- Nutrient-Manager (MNM) mobile phone application for field-specific advice provision in the period November 2020 to January 2021. It provides a systematic overview of user experiences to inform adaptations and re-design of MNM data collection and advice protocols to enhance its usability and scaling potential.

Since 2012 the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has been piloting the Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) approach in East Africa, including the Nyando basin of western Kenya, introducing a wide range of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices. The CSA interventions were tailored to address the climate risks in Nyando, the needs and circumstances of individual farmers, and were collectively piloted with the farmers for potential adoption.

The Zimbabwean dairy industry is massively underperforming, as evidenced by a reduction in milk yield from 262 million liters in 1990 to <37 million liters in 2009 and a steady but slow increase to 82 million liters in 2021. The current demand for milk in Zimbabwe stands at 130 million liters, and there is a national capacity for processing 400 million liters per annum.