Gender dynamics and norms are crucial for rural livelihoods and achieving food security. While norms related to ownership, management, product distribution, and sales methods are prevalent in dairy production, more research needs to be conducted in this area. This study hypothesized that innovative technologies introduced without considering gender dynamics and norms may limit the extent of transformative change.

Fonio (Digitaria exilis(Kippist)Stapf) and Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea(L.)Verdc.) are native crops grown at a small scale in Mali that have potential to support agricultural productivity under climate change. A community biodiversity management approach was explored in this study as a means to reinforce the cultivation of these crops by increasing farmers’ access to intraspecific diversity and developing capacities of community institutions for their management. The research involved six communities in Ségou and Sikasso regions.

Seed systems for vegetatively propagated crops (VPCs) are frequently governed by a regulatory blueprint designed for major cereal crops. This approach tends to disregard the distinct biological characteristics of VPCs, in turn limiting farmers’ access to high-quality planting material and increasing the risk of pest and disease transmission. In this paper, we ask what type of regulatory framework is appropriate for improving farmers’ access to quality VPC planting material, and what the costs, benefits, risks, and unintended consequences are of alternative regulations.

In many African countries south of the Sahara, farmers depend on the cultivation of vegetatively propagated crops (VPCs) for both consumption and commercial purposes. Yet yields for these crops remain at low levels due, in part, to seed market imperfections that constrain farmers' access to improved varieties and high-quality planting material.

Potato plays an important role in Kenya’s food and nutrition security plan - part of the Big Four
Economic Development Strategy. The crop is cultivated by approximately 800,000 smallholder farmers
and a few medium and large-scale farmers. The sector employs another 2.5 million people -
transporters, distributors, processors, vendors, retailers, and exporters - who derive their livelihoods
along the value chain. Production has fluctuated over the last decade, despite a steady increase in area

To understand the aquatic feed sector in Zambia, Kenya and Nigeria and to inform subsequent impact
assessments of the Norad-Fasa project, the monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact assessment (MELIA)
unit at WorldFish, together with implementing partners, organized 2-day workshops across the three
countries. Using a participatory systems approach, the workshops brought together representatives of
governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector and farmers associations, as well

Increased adoption of improved agricultural technologies is considered an essential step to address global poverty and hunger, and agronomic trials suggest intensification in developing countries could result in large yield gains. Yet the promise of new technologies does not always carry over from trials to real-life conditions, and diffusion of many technologies remains limited.

The rich agrobiodiversity of China is under unprecedented threat, experiencing a dramatic loss of many valuable local varieties and wild relatives of main crops. The country's formal conservation system of ex situ genebanks faces serious challenges to address this loss. Community seed banks can play a key role to complement the conservation activities of these genebanks and provide other important collective goods, such as evolutionary services, but although they have been around for some 35 years in various parts of the world, in China they have a much shorter history.

Persistent food insecurity in the global south has triggered calls for sustainable development worldwide. Moreover, more than a quarter of the world's population suffers from micronutrient deficiencies or hidden hunger. The population bulge, declining soil fertility and inadequate/inappropriate use of farm inputs in Sub-Saharan Africa place it in a precarious position. Multi-nutrient fertilizer blends have been mooted as a key innovation in closing yield gaps and boosting food and nutrition security.

The biomedical domain has shown that in silico analyses over vast data pools enhances the speed and scale of scientific innovation. This can hold true in agricultural research and guide similar multi-stakeholder action in service of global food security as well (Streich et al. Curr Opin Biotechnol 61:217–225. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2020.01.010, 2020).

Maize cropping systems in Kenya, as is true in many other places in Africa, face multiple biotic and abiotic stressors not least climatic ones. Guided by farmers' priorities, maize breeding programs can contribute to the needed resilience against these changes by developing and mainstreaming new generations of maize varieties adapted to these challenges. Using data from 1,400 farmers and applying a multi-criteria choice analysis, this study reports on smallholder farmers' relative valuation of stress tolerance traits.

Chaya is a highly nutritious perennial leafy vegetable native to Mesoamerica. This drought-resistant crop has low production and consumption levels in Guatemala, but has the potential to help agriculture and food systems be more nutritious and resilient. This study analyzed the value chain of chaya in Guatemala, and identified bottlenecks and opportunities for its use-enhancement. This research, the first of its kind applied to this crop in Guatemala, combined Rapid Market Appraisal tools.