This Report was produced as part of the CGIAR Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) Initiative’s effort to ensure that women and youth are well integrated into to the work of the Initiative’s Use Cases and that the EiA Initiative is achieving its gender- and youth-specific impacts: that women and men, youth and non-youth equally participate in and benefit from the agronomic solutions developed, validated, and piloted by Use Cases, and that social innovations that empower women and transform unequal power relations and restrictive social and gender norms are piloted and promoted.

Zambia has historically qualified as a regional model of stability and peace. However, this status is being undermined by several socio-political factors, including deeply entrenched patterns of social inequality and gender discrimination, high levels of poverty and youth unemployment, as well as recurring episodes of electoral violence. Climate and extreme weather events compound most of these vulnerabilities and even create new ones, generating societal dynamics that will likely increase social tensions with greater risk of insecurity.

Despite their crucial role in combating hunger, malnutrition, and poverty, many plant species cultivated as fruits, vegetables, roots, and tuber crops remain neglected and underutilized worldwide, and Sri Lanka is no exception. Integrating these crops into farming systems has the potential to create nutrient-dense, climate-resilient, and sustainable agricultural practices.

In rural areas where malnutrition is higher and households poorer, growing diverse fruit trees-especially indigenous fruits-can provide multiple benefits. These fruit trees can be a valuable source of secondary income in rural areas such as Guinayangan, where coconut cultivation is the primary source of income. They are also a viable strategy to promote climate-smart agriculture which can strengthen the resilience of farmers; and to diversify agricultural systems for better nutrition within the community.

The Indian subcontinent is the primary center of origin of rice where huge diversity is found in the Indian rice gene pool, including landraces. North Eastern States of India are home to thousands of rice landraces which are highly diverse and good sources of nutritional traits, but most of them remain nutritionally uncharacterized.

Tea is a very important cash crop in Vietnam as it provides crucial income and employment for farmers in poor rural areas. Unfortunately, the dominance of long-term, conventional tea cultivation has caused severe soil health degradation and environmental pollution. At the same time, as tea production may provide a better net income compared with other annual crops such as rice and vegetables, farmers have been converting parts of their allocated land to cultivate tea plants.

Within the framework of the CGIAR 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy, CGIAR is
actively engaged in a series of initiatives aimed at realizing a world with sustainable and
resilient food, land, and water systems. These initiatives have the overarching goal of
fostering more diverse, healthy, safe, sufficient, and affordable diets while ensuring
improved livelihoods and greater social equality, all while operating within global and
regional environmental boundaries. One of these significant initiatives is the CGIAR

The methodology is applicable to measures that reduce anaerobic decomposition of organic matter in rice-cropping soils. Such measures include changing the water regime during the cultivation period from continuously to intermittently flooded conditions and/or a shortened period of flooded conditions, using the alternate wetting and drying method, adopting aerobic rice cultivation methods, and switching from transplanted to direct-seeded rice (DSR). This methodology can be applied to large and small-scale or micro-scale projects or PoAs.

This chapter reviews some of the book’s overarching themes and main findings. Overarching themes include the recognition of persistent hardship and inequality, particularly in the Afghan portions of the basins and substantial knowledge gaps that need to be filled to address existing challenges. Key threads relate to trends in demography, climate, land and water use, and institutions that may accentuate challenges. The chapter concludes that more than incremental change will be needed to support the progress necessary to provide a basic level of human development.

Two remote-sensing datasets were used to estimate land and water use in the Kabul, Kurram and Gomal transboundary basins shared between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The proportion of different land-cover classes within these three basins was estimated. Barren land and rangeland form the largest block of land-cover classes owing to the prevailing semi-arid conditions. Domestic water use ranges from 21.2 million m3 (mcm) in Gomal to 554 mcm in Kabul and 106 mcm in the Kurram. Due to the lack of data, industrial water use was assumed to be one quarter of domestic water use.

Presentation of initial results of ClimBeR orchard biodiversification case study, as a climate smart and soil and water conservation practice during the 3rd African Congress on Conservation Agriculture held in Morocco in June 2023.

The webinar, hosted by the digital innovation initiative under work package 4, focused on Food System Monitoring and featured a panel of experts who shared insights from their work in various countries. The speakers highlighted the benefits of digital transformation in agriculture, particularly in regions with limited traditional information sources.