In many developing countries, smallholder farmers cultivating vegetatively propagated crops (VPCs) have limited access to quality planting material. This constraint can limit both the yield of and returns on VPC cultivation. Yet policy and regulatory initiatives designed to strengthen access to quality VPC planting materials have been relatively unsuccessful to date. Part of the problem is the unique biological and economic characteristics of vegetative propagation and its distinctness from cereal crops, which dominate narratives on seed system reforms.

This report summarizes a workshop, which was held in Dakar on 10 November 2021, that introduced AICCRA-Senegal partners to Climate Maprooms, data, and other relevant tools and platforms that are available through ANACIM. Presentations covered ANACIM products and strategy for agriculture and related sectors, the ENACTS approach to strengthening national capacity to provide locally actionable climate information, and analyses of the quality of ANACIM’s gridded historical data that serve as a foundation for localized climate information products.

Agricultural research has been traditionally driven by linear approaches dictated by hypothesis-testing. With the advent of powerful data science capabilities, predictive, empirical approaches are possible that operate over large data pools to discern patterns. Such data pools need to contain well-described, machine-interpretable, and openly available data (represented by high-scoring Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable—or FAIR—resources).

Small ruminant value chain development started in Ethiopia as part of Livestock and Fish CRP in 2012 in seven sites representing different regions of Ethiopia, production systems and communities. The objective of the initiative was to test technological and institutional innovations that would transform the small ruminant value chain and this involved rigorous procedures.

Ethiopia is increasingly impacted by climate change and variability because of its greater reliance on climate-sensitive economic sectors such as agriculture. The impacts of climate change and variability are greater on a poor section of the rural community in particular because of their weak adaptive capacities. In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on promoting climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and climate information services (CIS) to improve climate risk management and adaptation of smallholders to climate change in Ethiopia.

CIP, in partnership with Orgamed Farms Ltd and Stokman Rozen Kenya conducted a scoping exercise to assess
private interest in seed production, and the potato sector and partners in general. This scoping report maps
partners relevant to potato development and provides an agro-ecological and socio-economic assessment of
potential areas for developing potato sector considering differing profiles of value chains: rural, food security
focused, urban, commercially driven. The scoping exercise shows great potential to uplift the potato sector to

Many CGIAR centers are developing forage crops, but seed quality declines once farmers reproduce the seeds for planting. With this simple mobile seed cleaning and treatment unit, seed quality and production capacity can be maintained sustainably. Four farmer cooperatives in North-western Tunisia with over 1,000 members are using the technology, and from October 2019-December 2021 the quantity of cleaned/treated forage seeds increased from 240 to 908 tons and the number of individual users from 138 to 417.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a country with a high agricultural productivity potential; however, the agribusiness sector remains unattractive to youths. This study examined the extent to which perceived social norms and psychological capital affect youths’ intentions to pursue agribusiness opportunities in the Eastern DRC. Data was collected on a sample of 600 youths. We applied Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS−SEM) in order to examine the relationship between the variables.