The role of plant breeding in adapting crops to climate changes that affect food production in developing countries is recognized as extremely important and urgent, alongside other agronomic, socio-economic and policy adaptation pathways. To enhance plant breeders’ capacity to respond to climate challenges, it is acknowledged that they need to be able to access and use as much genetic diversity as they can get.

The reports cover the development of Climate-Smart Maps and Adaptation Plans (CS-MAP) for application in South Central Coast provinces, such as Khanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, and Phu Yen. The documents aim to address the following issues: (1) to identify areas that need to delay sowing, conversion of crops, to suspend, or have an early planting to adapt to water sources and weather conditions; and (2) to ensure the involvement of stakeholders from experts as well as the public in determining the level of adaptation.

In 2020 the CGIAR CAS Secretariat is conducting independent reviews of the 12 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs), including this one of FISH. The reviews will provide information on quality of science and effectiveness in each CRP. This review covers the Phase II years of 2017 through 2019, with a view to identifying lessons for future research modalities.

Involvement of youth in horticulture agribusiness has become a vital approach to create employment opportunities among the youth in Tanzania. This study aimed at examining the extent of youth participation and factors influencing youth involvement in horticulture agribusiness with a focus on innovations in post-harvest management (PHM). Data were collected from a sample of 576 male and female youth in Njombe region using a multi-stage random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using an ordered logit model and descriptive statistics.

“How can we continue with our studies?” was one of the first questions asked to the teachers by Luisa, a student attending the Heirs of Tradition livestock production program, implemented by Alquería and the National Training Service (SENA, its Spanish acronym) in Colombia, in view of the relentless spread of the COVID- 19 pandemic in Colombia.1 At first sight, the predictable complications brought along by mandatory confinement to halt the spread of the pandemic could be overcome virtually, the way many students from urban schools and universities are still doing.

In developing countries, agricultural cooperatives are increasingly being used to promote improved agricultural technologies and alleviate food insecurity and poverty. However, little is known about the role of agricultural cooperatives in accelerating the adoption of improved agricultural technologies.

Smallholder farmers grow a major share of the food consumed around
the world and preserve rich, biodiverse landscapes.1
But despite their
fundamental importance, many small farmers lead lives of deepening
vulnerability – caught between subsistence strategies threatened by
ecological degradation and commercial food systems that devalue them
as cheap labour. Alternative agricultural models are urgently needed.
One long-running movement still shows major untapped potential: that

Yam (Dioscorea sp.) is an understudied tuber crop despite its importance for food security, income generation, culture, and health in West Africa. Traditional yam cropping practices in West Africa deliver low yields and lead to environmental degradation. In the context of a ‘research for development’ project, we developed and implemented a participatory and transdisciplinary research approach as a means to derive more sustainable yam production practices.

SPIA has developed a comprehensive, country-level approach to documenting the adoption and diffusion of agricultural innovations linked to CGIAR research. The first focal country for this approach is Ethiopia, where SPIA has been working since 2015.
The approach involves three stages:

The Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) countries, the legal and financial framework that supported the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), was due to end on 28 February 2020. As a consequence, CTA was also set to close. An orderly closure of the Centre was agreed by the OACPS-EU authorities, with the process to run from March to December 2020.