As part of the AICCRA, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are tasked to develop curricula and training materials to accelerate the mainstreaming of Climate Information Services (CIS) and Climate- Smart Agriculture (CSA) into University’s curricula in Africa. This report describes the activities of a training of trainers’ (ToT) workshop on soil nutrient and water management in crop production course module, held from 28 February to 03 March 2023.

As part of the AICCRA, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are tasked to develop curricula and training materials to accelerate the mainstreaming of Climate Information Services (CIS) and Climate- Smart Agriculture (CSA) into University’s curricula in Africa. This report describes the activities of a training of trainers’ (ToT) workshop on Indigenous and local trees-based agroforestry systems course module, held on 11-14 April 2023.

This study documented existing knowledge on traditional fruits, vegetables and pulses in Kenya and Ethiopia. The aim was to identify neglected and underutilized species with high potential for food security, for their economic value and contribution to sustainable agriculture, based on a literature review and confirmation of existing data by local experts. In order of priority, the top 5 fruit species in Kenya are Tamarindus indica L. , Adansonia digitata L.

Scaling up Gender and Nutrition Sensitive (GNS) Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies and Climate Information Services (CIS) is essential to reducing gender inequalities and empowering women in agriculture and food systems in West Africa. AICCRA collaborated with its regional partner, CORAF to promote tested and sound GNS Technologies during the 2023 Market for Agricultural Innovation and Technology (MITA).

Women are less represented in agricultural research and development sector representing only 25% of agricultural scientists in Africa in the last decade, and a much lower proportion of decision makers on agriculture and climate change at institutional, national, and global levels. Research activities on climate change and outputs must be inclusive, gender-oriented and promote gender equity to enable women scientists to make a greater contribution and be represented at all levels.

The world is facing a number of challenges such as climate change, diminishing soil quality and stagnant crop yields, which call for scalable solutions to ensure food security for a growing population. In this paper, we explore the role of data science in modern agriculture, highlighting the importance of big data analytics, geospatial technology, and machine learning.

Accelerating the scaling of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) requires institutional innovations and interactions among stakeholders operating across scales. The West Africa CSA Alliance (WACSA) and the Central Africa CSA Alliance (CACSA) are two CSA institutional innovations operating at regional scale and aimed at facilitating dialogue and discussions among stakeholders, as well as fostering collective actions to transform and reorient agricultural systems in face of climate change.

The SIMFS initiative in Ethiopia is implemented under the scheme of sustainable intensification of crop-livestock mixed farming systems. Its purposes are to encourage the adoption and innovation of sustainable intensification technologies that improve crop, livestock, and water productivity, and conserve natural resources for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia.

The National Stakeholder Consultation workshop, held in New Delhi on December 4, 2023, marked a pivotal step in advancing digital innovation and inclusion in agriculture. Jointly organized by the CGIAR Digital Innovation (DI) Initiative team from IRRI and IWMI, along with CRISP, this workshop served as a platform for sharing progress on the Digital Inclusion Index (DII) and the implementation of the Rice Crop Manager (RCM) within India's dynamic agri-digital ecosystem.

Climate change presents significant challenges to countries worldwide, and Ethiopia is not exceptional (Simane et al., 2016). The nation confronts a wide array of climate risks that pose substantial obstacles to its sustainable development and the well-being of its people. Ethiopia is particularly vulnerable to climaterelated hazards due to its predominantly agricultural economy and large population reliant on rain-fed farming.

To contribute to building sustainable and effective climate change adaptation solutions avoiding usability gap, it is largely recommended to engage in the process of co-production, integrating expertise and knowledge from various academic and non-academic actors. We want to learn if and how co-production, believed to effectively link knowledge and decision-making, and thus suggested as the best practice in building decision-support frameworks, is really applied in the frameworks that are being implemented on the ground.

Agriculture plays a major role in economic growth, but it is also an important source of greenhouse gas emissions in Kenya. To achieve Kenya’s NDC target of cutting GHG emissions by 32% by 2030 relative to business-as-usual (BAU) of 143 MtCO2 eq, there is need to identify and promote scalable innovations for food system emissions reduction. The CGIAR Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems (Mitigate+) can contribute towards Kenya’s NDC. The Mitigate+ Initiative aims to reduce annual global food system emissions by 7% by 2030. Kenya is among the prioritized countries for the initiative.