Livestock production constitutes a significant contribution to the economy and nutrition of many households in Tanzania. Despite the profound attributes of livestock in the nation, livestock sector is yet to attain its maximum level of production and productivity due to a number of challenges including insufficient forage quantity and quality. This culminates to poor animal performance especially during the dry seasons whereby availability of natural forages is limited and yet of poor nutritive value.

Coconut-based farming systems in Guinayangan, Quezon offer special opportunities for achieving multiple objectives, including carbon sequestration, economic empowerment of women and reduction of risks from variable and extreme weather. This info note discusses the gender-based role inequalities within coconut-based farming systems that can be addressed through agroforestry-based, climate-smart agriculture that features small livestock, fruit trees and root and tuber crops as understory crops.

Since 2012 the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has been piloting the Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) approach in East Africa, including the Nyando basin of western Kenya, introducing a wide range of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices. The CSA interventions were tailored to address the climate risks in Nyando, the needs and circumstances of individual farmers, and were collectively piloted with the farmers for potential adoption.

By 2050, the United Nations projects that 68 percent of the world population will live in cities (UN DESA 2019). However, with continuous population growth, the number of people living in rural areas of many low- and low-middle-income countries (LMICs) will continue to rise. Two- thirds of the extreme poor live in rural areas (World Bank 2016) and the livelihoods of two to three billion rural people, often the most food in-secure and vulnerable, still depend primarly on small farms (Laborde, Parent, and Smaller 2020; Woodhill, Hasnain, and Griffith 2020).

The climate crisis is having a significant detrimental influence on livelihoods in developing countries. Climate variability and extremes can negatively impact climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture and livestock which are a considerable source of employment and a key contributor to economic growth in developing countries (Burke, Hsiang, and Miguel 2015; Dell, Jones, and Olken 2014; 2012). The intensification of the climate crisis poses a threat to efforts aimed to eliminate poverty and food

Analysis of farmer risk perceptions is usually limited to production risks, with risk perception as a function of likelihood and severity. Such an approach is limited in the context of the many risks and other important risk attributes. Our analysis of the risk perceptions of farmers extends beyond production risks, severity of the risks, and their likelihoods. We first characterize agricultural risks and identify their main sources and consequences. We then analyze risk perceptions as a hierarchical construct using partial least squares path modelling.

Although agriculture is the backbone of the African economy, it has faced considerable challenges in the past sixty years. Africa has moved from being a self-sufficiency continent before the 1960s, to net food importers, with a handful of countries facing severe food shortages from drought, desertification, climate change and wars. In this article, we use the case of Northern Ghana to explore some of the salient dynamics that have resulted in the current crisis in the African agricultural sector over time.

Guyana has densely populated coastal regions and relatively inaccessible Hinterland and is highly vulnerable to climate change and climate variability. The agriculture sector requires a transformation towards climate-resilient agriculture systems. In order to respond to this priority, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of Guyana and local partners, joined efforts to develop and implement a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) financed project, ‘Development of a Framework for Prioritizing Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA)’.

Agricultural systems in Southeast Asia are rapidly transitioning from subsistence-oriented to market-oriented agriculture. Driven by the highly complex and variable decision processes of individual farm households, these transitions have produced a diverse landscape mosaic across the region. Elucidation and characterization of underlying decision-making processes, and the factors that influence land use choices, are thus essential for sustainable land use planning.

Link to the full toolkit: https://bit.ly/Foresight_Training_Toolkit
The Foresight for Future Planning Training Series is a four-part training series for applying foresight to address climate change impacts and uncertainties. The training series equips users to practically apply a range of foresight tools and methods for innovative research in development prioritisation, specifically assisting in strateg ic planning and policy formulation for climate-relevant transformation in agriculture and food systems.