Crop production in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is constrained by rainfall variability and declining soil fertility. This has over time led to a decrease in crop yield, among them also maize. This decrease is also experienced in the sub-humid and semi-arid locations of Kenya. Among the commonly used soil and water management practices in SSA are Conservation Agriculture (CA) and integrated soil fertility management (ISFM). Crop response to these management practices is influenced by the existence of soil fertility gradients which are common among smallholder farmers.

This study explored the potential of the Innovation Platform approach, in improving the participation of rural female farmers in Maize value chain. It intends to identify the peculiarities, in terms of challenges and opportunities related to its application to the rural women realities. The study collected data from 120 small scale maize producers in South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from 2015 to 2017, using individual interview and focus group discussion (FGD) for data confirmation.

Community-based seed producers are a relatively under-researched and under-documented category of seed producers, but have the potential to cater to the diverse seed needs and interests of smallholder farmers. This working paper presents a number of such community-seed producers, with a focus on community seed banks.

This working paper presents results of an impact assessment of management innovations that were introduced in agricultural carbon projects in East Africa. We evaluated the effect of project design, management, and monitoring transfer of responsibilities to local communities on the performance of agricultural carbon projects. The assessment included the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the projects on the smallholder farmers.

Despite increasing popularity of farmer-led irrigation in Ethiopia, little is known about socio-economics of farmers who receive public support in accelerating its expansion. We investigate this question by combining spatial land suitability for groundwater- and solar irrigation with pre-existing socioeconomic data. We find that if public support in farmer-led irrigation expansion were to be provided to farmers who own land areas that are also spatially highly suitable for irrigation, high-value crop cultivators and wealthier farmers would most likely benefit from such investments.

Land degradation affects a significant portion of the Earth’s ice-free land area and several countries have embraced the challenge of restoring large parts of their degraded lands. Success in these efforts depends on various factors, including the amount of resources invested, the technical capacity available and the degree of involvement of stakeholders. Burkina Faso has committed to restoring 5 Mha of degraded land by 2030.

Creation of Ethiopia’s digital agro-climate advisory platform, a collaborative partnership between government institutions and CGIAR centers, represents a breakthrough in providing climate-information and timely decision-support tools to smallholder farmers to strengthen adaptive capacity and resilience. Partnership between Ministry of Agriculture and EDACaP team with Ethiopia’s FANA Broadcasting Corporate led to dissemination of agro-climate messages to 13-15 million smallholder farmers across FANA’s 11 regional broadcasting centers in Ethiopia.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a staple food crop in Nigeria, but root yields hardly exceed 10 t ha−1. Intensification of small holders’ cassava production is key to improved food security and income generation. We tested, in two demonstration trials and 20 on‐farm trials, different intensification options: cassava growth type (erect and branching), fertilizer application (with and without), and cassava − legume arrangement (0.5 by 2 m/1 by 1 m spacing of cassava) in demonstration trials. In on‐farm trials, farmers tested a subset of these treatments.

This paper reviews the current state of policies and frameworks on climate change, agriculture, food, and nutrition security in Kenya. Integrating climate change in policies and frameworks on agriculture, food and nutrition security is important for providing and strengthening the enabling environment for building farmers resilience and adaptive capacity. Similarly, climate change policies and frameworks need to integrate agriculture, food and nutrition security.

Agricultural mechanization in developing countries has taken at least two contested innovation pathways—the “incumbent trajectory” that promotes industrial agriculture, and an “alternative pathway” that supports small-scale mechanization for sustainable development of hillside farming systems.

This study assesses the impact of climate change (CC) adaptation on farm-level revenue among 500 soybean farmers randomly selected in three districts in Togo using endogenous switching regression method. The survey results indicate that only 40.37% of the women have adapted to CC against 59.62% of the men. Moreover, being member of farmer-based organization (FBO), access to credit and extension services, agricultural training of women are the main factors that increase the likelihood of adaptation.

Interventions that are robust, cost effective, and scalable are in critical demand throughout South Asia to offset growing water scarcity and avert increasingly frequent water-related disasters. This case study presents two complementary forms of intervention that transform water hazards (floodwater) into a resource (groundwater) to boost agricultural productivity and enhance livelihoods. The first intervention, holiya, is simple and operated by individual farmers at the plot/farm scale to control local flooding in semiarid climates.