The Call for Applications resulted in a total of 849 applicants, out of which 288 met the high-quality standards for prequalification. The accelerator program successfully attracted women-led or co-led agribusinesses, with 69% of applicants featuring at least one woman in the founding team. The majority of applicants (72%) indicated that they were targeting smallholder farmers in their business model, and 52% claimed to have a digital innovation, highlighting the potential for technology in transforming the food systems sector.

KEY MESSAGES
◼ Despite many available digital tools in the digital ecosystem, many neglect smallholders’ ranching. Also, they focus solely on performance indicators, lacking climate-informed agroecological features.
â—¼ Mitigation features are included only by performance assessment tools, although only by half of them.
â—¼ Adaptation features in digital tools include mitigation recommendations, access to pest and disease information or early warning, and product diversification.

Agriculture in India contributes close to 20% of GDP and employs 44% of the workforce. Of these agricultural workers, 55% are women, and this percentage is likely to increase as women have fewer opportunities than men to find non-farm jobs. On top of that, women face significantly more barriers and constraints in accessing natural resources such as water and land because – despite significant legal and social efforts – the land rights of women are not widely acknowledged.

This series of socio-legal reviews summarizes the legal and policy documents related to women’s land tenure in seven countries: Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, The Gambia, Ethiopia, Niger, Bangladesh, and Colombia. These synthesis documents, part of the IFAD Initiative on Women’s Resource Rights, are designed for researchers and policymakers seeking to improve women’s land and resource rights in these target countries.

A Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) approach is fundamental to agribusiness transformation in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. Work package 5 aims to bring about inclusive and scalable agribusiness innovations through targeted GESI support to UU ESA work packages 1-6. To achieve this, we produced this GESI framework on social, economic, political, and institutional barriers and opportunities to more inclusive agribusiness in the ESA region.

There is global debate whether to diversify agricultural production. A study was conducted in 2016 and 2017 in Lilongwe district, Malawi, to determine effects of agricultural diversity on income, wealth, diets and nutrition. A cross-sectional design was used in surveys on agriculture, income, assets, and nutrition coupled with anthropometric measurements targeting children, men, and women in 424 households. Using an agricultural diversity index constituting crop livestock and fruit diversity, level of agricultural diversity was 28.22%).

India is an agriculturally based nation, and a significant portion of its
livestock sector is controlled by women. Women have a lot of options to
increase their income by working in the livestock sector. Livestock
provides meat, milk, eggs, and other food products, which are generally
considered key assets for rural livelihood, that are dietary staples for
population. For the women's livelihood and to help ensure the food security
of the household, livestock is a crucial non-land productive asset. The tiny,

The primary aim of this study is to explore what the local water sources are, how they are
prioritized, how communities are coping with water scarcity, how water is locally governed
and controlled, and how decision-making dynamics at the household as well as community
levels impact the choice and use of improved and unimproved water sources, as well as the
differentiated impacts these choices have on women and men. Rural households in Kenya
must make a complex set of decisions around water source choices as they lack secure water

Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) is a social enterprise with a mission to work with communities to secure a better life and become good stewards of their natural resources. COMACO finances enhanced climate-smart agricultural practises through the adoption of a legume-based farming system and agroforestry that increase crop yields.

There is ample data and literature that shows how women’s experiences in low-paid, short-term migration vary from those of men, and that experiences are linked to women’s empowerment – captured by the interrelated dimensions of resources, agency, and achievements. While considerable attention is paid to understanding the generalized notion of women’s empowerment, it is also key to distinguish empowerment in specific realms, including economic empowerment, agriculture, health and nutrition, and migration.