Sustainable mechanization can help reduce women smallholder farmers’ time and labor burden while increasing farm productivity and building resilience. However, the reality is that most agricultural innovations and technologies do not cater to women’s needs or preferences and are primarily designed for middle-income male farmers. While the adoption of mechanization in Bangladesh is rapidly increasing, women smallholder farmers face sociocultural constraints that can make operating machines difficult.

Ecological intensification has been embraced with great interest by the academic sector but is still rarely taken up by farmers because monitoring the state of different ecological functions is not straightforward. Modelling tools can represent a more accessible alternative of measuring ecological functions, which could help promote their use amongst farmers and other decision-makers. In the case of crop pollination, modelling has traditionally followed either a mechanistic or a data-driven approach.

In Laos, farmers are using the validated agro-climatic advisories from the Alliance-supported Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information System to improve their farming practices, such as crop variety, planting dates, and water and fertilizer applications. These advisories were integrated into the Laos Climate Services for Agriculture (LaCSA) system which disseminates information to over 100,000 farmers through farmer field schools, loudspeaker broadcasts, Whatsapp and Facebook. It is currently at the operational stage.

This study analyses the impact of high-quality nutritional grasses in feeding on beef cattle in farms from Córdoba Department, Colombia. The low productivity and high environmental impact associated with beef farming in the region make it necessary to implement sustainable intensification strategies that increase animal yield and mitigate climate change.

In Colombia, milk yield gaps among dairy systems are large and farms with better feed quality and sustainable cattle management practices are more productive. Cattle farming is responsible for about 15% of the Colombian greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), therefore, sustainable mitigation strategies for dairy farms can help to reduce the climate impact. Silvo-pastoral systems (SPS) and improved pastures (IP) are recognised strategies to transform dairy systems by enhancing cattle productivity, reducing climate change impact, and increasing farm profitability.

In Nicaragua, land use change and agriculture cause 80% of total greenhouse gas emissions, of which more than half are from livestock. Livestock farming occupies almost 50% of total land area and is a major cause of forestland conversion, especially in the Caribbean region covering over half of the national territory, with 89% of the country’s forests and the highest proportion of poor people.

Although Ghana is a leading global cocoa producer, its production and yield have experienced declines in recent years due to various factors, including long-term climate change such as increasing temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, as well as drought events. With the increasing exposure of cocoa-producing regions to extreme weather events, the vulnerability of cocoa production is also expected to rise. Supplemental irrigation for cocoa farmers has emerged as a viable adaptation strategy to ensure a consistent water supply and enhance yield.

Introduction

The outcomes of climate-related security risks are also a function of how the values of those affected influence how they perceive and interpret that hazard, in addition to a function of the extent to which a society is economically, politically, and technologically prepared to cope with the damaging consequences of a particular hazard. This policy and practice brief (PPB) discusses the significance of community values in addressing climate-related security risks. Values are understood as what is most important to communities and what is most considered worth preserving and pursuing.

The CGIAR Independent Advisory and Evaluation Services (IAES) 2022‒24 multi-year workplan provides for the evaluability assessments of Regional Integrated Initiatives (RIIs) in 2023. These ToRs respond to the mandate of the CGIAR IAES Evaluation Function to execute the evaluability study; and sets out the purpose, objectives and a process to follow, in accordance with the CGIAR Evaluability Assessment Guidelines.

The first edition of HER Voice, the official newsletter of the CGIAR gender equality research initiative (HER+) highlights the significant strides made by HER+. Our achievements include the development of a gendered social norms index, a pioneering framework for women-led climate-smart socio-technical innovation bundles, a comprehensive review of gendered resilience through social protection design, and the unveiling of the Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood System Governance Assessment Tool (WEAGov).