Over the past seven years (2015-2021), the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) and the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU), supported by the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC) and Global Affairs Canda (GAC), have empowered women to become entrepreneurs in Burundi's bean seed industry. Today, half of Burundi's decentralized bean seed producers are women, resulting in increased food and nutrition security, more bean-based products, and profitable markets for both men and women. Overall, bean production experienced a fivefold increase.

Given the generally low adoption of early climate change response technologies among tree crop producers in sub-Saharan Africa, stakeholders interested in the commercialization or scaling of such technologies will require empirical evidence of their market prospects. Using a double-bounded contingent valuation approach, the study evaluated the willingness and ability of 523 Ghanaian producers to invest in solar-powered irrigation pumps (SPIPs) for cocoa irrigation. The sample was split into three segments based on farm size: resource-poor, resource-limited, and resource-rich.

This innovation brief presents a methodology that was developed and empirically applied in Morocco to support the “setting up (of) a multiscale polycentric governance framework for promoting transformative adaptation options for climate change” as part of the overarching goal of Work Package #4 (WP4) of the CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience (also known as ClimBeR).

Mixed farming is defined as agricultural production systems with the integration of crops, agroforestry, fisheries, and livestock in a system approach. Crops and livestock are critical components of the mixed farming system.

Objectives:

To promote agricultural Mechanization.
Women and youth employment.
To overcome labour constraints in mixed farming systems.

After crop production, livestock is one of the most important income generation sources for the village people, and 84% of village households in Bangladesh are involved with livestock production (animals or poultry or both). In Bangladesh, the livestock sector contributes about 2% of the national GDP. Despite the huge number of people involved with livestock production, the country suffers from an acute shortage of livestock products such as milk, meat, and eggs. In Bangladesh, the present milk, meat, and eggs production can meet only 50%, 87%, and 63% of the national demand.

Objectives:

Collaboration with Bangladesh Rice Research Institute to conduct rice-based cropping systems intensification and diversification research.
Scaling of diversified and intensified cropping systems.
Testing climate-smart and resource-conserving rice production technology.

Mixed farming is defined as agricultural production systems with the integration of crops, agroforestry, fisheries, and livestock in a system approach. Crops and livestock are critical components of the mixed farming system.

The SI-MFS initiative in Bangladesh working on different innovations such as intensifying and diversifying cropping systems for better crop-livestock integration, intensifying and diversifying homestead gardens for improved nutrition, and sustainable intensification of livestock production within MFS. Under these initiatives, SI-MFS has done several scaling activities in 2023.

The Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) through the Improving Bean Productivity and Markets in Africa (IBPMA) Project funded by the Global Affairs Canada engaged on the project to reduce poverty amongst smallholder bean farmers, especially women, by reducing food insecurity, increasing incomes, and strengthening climate-smart agriculture (CSA). This mid-term evaluation report has brought up some key findings about the progress the project made over the four-year implementation period.

The rising concerns of over-exploitation of groundwater resources, increasing cost of inputs and cultivation, timely availability of labor and energy, degradation of soil health, and climate change prevail in major agri-food systems in Bangladesh. Thus, reversing the unsustainable way of practicing agriculture to climate-smart agriculture would be key to sustainable agricultural development and productivity.