Agriculture faces the competing challenges of enhancing productivity and raising the incomes of smallholder farmers, while simultaneously also addressing concerns related to environmental sustainability. Digital technologies have the potential to tackle these challenges and transform agri food systems in unprecedented ways. This policy brief advocates for the conceptualisation and development of digital public infrastructure for agriculture for a more equitable and responsible development pathway for agriculture in the G20 countries.

Are the forest conservation practices sustained after Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programmes end? Using a sample of 268 (former) PES recipients and non-recipients from the Budongo-Bugoma PES programme in Western Uganda, we employ the before-after-control–intervention (difference-in-difference) approach to estimate the PES programme outcome on their privately owned forests. PES is associated with less deforestation during the operational period, but the link has vanished four years after programme termination.

This report was prepared by CGIAR in response to an invitation from the Secretariat of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. It is structured to correspond, in general, to agenda items 2-11 of the Nineteenth Regular Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA-19). Some sections of this report were previously included in the CGIAR submission to the Eleventh Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources (ITWG-PGRFA-11), in April 2023.

The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project is a three-year initiative funded by the World Bank and implemented in six (6) African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal and Zambia. In Senegal, the project’s objective is to reach and impact over 300 000 farmers and value chain players with climate informed agro-advisories and new/improved climate smart-agriculture (CSA) packages and technologies by the end of 2023.

The potential for operations research with farmer supplied data coupled with machine learning to improve crop management is explored through a series of case studies from developing countries. The information provided by the farmers ranged from solely yield to a description of the management of the crop and some details of the growth environment. The climate or weather conditions of the georeferenced farms were estimated from publicly available data bases. Two principle analytical approaches were used.

This report summarizes findings from a study on digital tool use among rice farmers in Vietnam for the Inclusive Digital Tools Project (ATDT) of the Agroecological Transitions for Building Resilient and Inclusive Agricultural and Food Systems (TRANSITIONS) program. Results show that few digital tools focused on rice production in Vietnam provide technical advice and performance assistance.

This info brief provides an executive overview of the research methods and key finding of a series of information briefs. The briefs were developed to assess the role of Heifer Nepal programming in supporting the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices amongst Heifer supported goat cooperatives, and their impact on a range of environmental and economic indicators.

Until recent decades, labour-intensive subsistence farming was a way of life and livelihood in the hill communities of Uttarakhand, India. However, the nature of agriculture falls far short of the expectations of the main labour force, the rural youth, leading to their mass migration to non-agricultural occupations. The large-scale youth migration has left many hill farming landscapes depopulated and farmlands abandoned. As youth have special stakes in food systems, they must be included in the sustainable transformation of food systems.

This paper combines panel data from nationally representative household-level surveys in Nigeria with long-term satellite-based spatial data on temperature and precipitation using geo-referenced information related to households. It aims to quantify the impacts of climate change on agricultural productivity, income shares, crop mix, and input use decisions. We measure climate change in harmful degree days, growing degree days, and changes in precipitation using long-term (30 year) changes in temperature and precipitation anomalies during the crop calendars.

"Shamba Shape Up" is a popular television show in East Africa that focuses on agricultural education and improvement. The show features a team of experts who visit different farms, providing practical demonstrations and advice to farmers on various aspects of agriculture, such as livestock rearing, crop cultivation, farm management techniques, and sustainable practices. It aims to educate and empower farmers with valuable information and skills to enhance productivity, increase yields, and improve their livelihoods.

This is a blog about how Conservation Agriculture can be a game changer in alleviating factors such as poverty, climate change, increasing conflicts, lack of economic means and various underlying environmental factors which can and do impact agricultural productivity negatively.

The Malabo Declaration on accelerated agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods is a set of goals that were adopted by Heads of State and Government of the African Union in 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (AUC 2014).