Maize is a critical staple cereal across Sub-Saharan Africa but attempts to improve its productivity in small-scale farming systems often prove disappointing. The 12 key technologies required to overcome poor yields are mostly known, but the manner that they are mobilized, packaged, and delivered requires re-evaluation. Combinations of better varieties and their necessary accompanying inputs must become more available and affordable for an African maize revolution to succeed, and land must be managed in ways that enhance, rather than diminish, land quality over time.

High-resolution mapping of rice fields is crucial for understanding and managing rice cultivation in countries like Bangladesh, particularly in the face of climate change. Rice is a vital crop, cultivated in small scale farms that contributes significantly to the economy and food security in Bangladesh. Accurate mapping can facilitate improved rice production, the development of sustainable agricultural management policies, and formulation of strategies for adapting to climatic risks.

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges confronting our global system today. The scientific community has clearly established that global temperatures are rising and the consequences of climate change may swiftly transition from an environmental risk to an economic threat. Agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to changes in weather and climatic condition. Over 60% of the yield variability is chalked up to to climate change; significantly affecting food production and farmer income.

Infrastructure in river basins is essential to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 2 on zero hunger, SDG 6 on water and sanitation, and SDG 7 on affordable and clean energy. However, important tradeoffs and synergies need to be navigated across these goals as both water and resources for infrastructure investments are limited. In transboundary river basins, such tradeoffs can transcend countries, creating a complex, interconnected system of water-energy-food linkages.

While climate services for small-scale farmers are gaining recognition for contributing to adaptation and resilience to climate variability and change, their provision in developing countries remains a critical challenge. Effective climate services consider why and how farmers of varied socioeconomic background make relevant decisions avoiding the traditional prescriptive forms of transfer that merely focus on delivering climate information.

A range of studies have highlighted the negative impacts of Covid-19 disruptions on incomes, food and nutrition security among rural agricultural communities in developing countries. However, knowledge of how such disruptions affect different categories of small-scale farmers in Sub-Sahara Africa is lacking.

Livestock route and related resources mapping, understanding their status and better protection of the routes in the pastoral areas are the first steps towards developing the areas. With this regard, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in collaboration with other partners, conducted participatory livestock routes and related resources mapping activities in selected pastoral woredas of the Oromia region and Somali region with European Union (EU) funded project, the so called Health of Ethiopian Animals for Rural Development (HEARD).

The new Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS) is a streamlined tool for measuring women’s empowerment, intended for use in large-scale, multitopic surveys conducted by national statistical systems. WEMNS is designed to measure empowerment in households with all types of livelihoods, in both urban and rural areas, complementing the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), which focuses on agricultural households.

Agriculture consumes the largest share of freshwater globally; therefore, distinguishing between rainfed and irrigated croplands is essential for agricultural water management and food security. In this study, a framework incorporating the Budyko model was used to differentiate between rainfed and irrigated cropland areas in Africa for eight remote sensing landcover products and a high-confidence cropland map (HCCM). The HCCM was generated for calibration and validation of the crop partitioning framework as an alternative to individual cropland masks which exhibit high disagreement.

Sustainable intensification practices suitable for smallholders in southern Africa will be needed to counteract the impact of future climate change and soil fertility decline in the region. Diversification of maize-based farming systems with grain legumes could play a key role. Here, we compared the performance of different maize-legume diversification strategies (single-row intercropping, strip cropping, and crop rotation) with sole cropped maize under conventional ploughing and Conservation Agriculture in four Zambian districts in the Eastern and Southern Provinces.

Agricultural intensification is necessary to meet growing global food demand, but it has potential environmental costs. Some activities associated with intensification, including increased use of fertilizer and other chemical inputs, are documented to have direct negative impacts on air and water quality, soil fertility, and other parts of the ecosystem. The effect of intensification on the amount of land under cultivation is more complex because it depends on accompanying policies, factor markets, and the spatial

Fish is a key source of income, food, and nutrition in Zambia, although unlike in the past, capture fisheries no longer meet the national demand for fish. Supply shortfalls created an opportunity to develop the aquaculture sector in Zambia, which is now one of the largest producers of farmed fish (Tilapia spp.) on the continent. In its present form, the aquaculture sector exhibits a dichotomy.