The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project aims to enhance access to climate information services and validated climate-smart agriculture technologies in Africa, to help these countries strengthen the resilience of their agricultural sectors to the threat posed by climate change. Strengthening the capacity of next users, particularly agricultural extension and advisory service (EAS) providers who work to support farmers in Senegal and five other target countries, is crucial for achieving this goal.

As part of the CGIAR initiative Asian Mega-Deltas, a scoping study was completed by the end of 2022 to prioritize key delta-oriented production systems and value chains in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta (Gonsalves et al., 2022). Rice, rice-fish and pulses production systems and value chains were selected based on a set of criteria including production, economic and nutritional value, climate change impact, and potential benefit of climate services with specific attention to the role of women and smallholders.

As part of the CGIAR Initiative on Asian Mega-Deltas, a scoping study was recently completed to prioritize key delta-oriented production systems and value chains for the Lower Mekong Basin in Cambodia (Gonsalves et al., 2022). Rice, vegetables, and inland fisheries were selected based on a set of criteria including production, economic and nutritional value, climate change impact, and potential benefit of climate services with specific attention for the role of women and smallholders.

In Ethiopia’s Tana-Beles region, water, energy, food and ecosystems (WEFE) are tightly interconnected, making a nexus approach highly relevant. Through the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains, researchers from the Alliance of Bioversity-CIAT and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) have been working on nexus tools, including the FABLE calculator and scenario tool at the national level, and the integrated water storage diagnostic in the Tana-Beles, a sub-basin of the Blue Nile River Basin.

Decision making in agriculture has been based on general (blanket) recommendations made by technicians, the farmer's own knowledge or local practices that are adopted as customary for generations. Recognizing the need to generate information to help make site-specific decisions based on traditional agronomic research, this study uses Machine Learning (ML) models and a Global Harmony Search (GHS) methodology to find an optimal solution to the combination of practices that a farmer could implement according to his soil and climate conditions specific to his land.

Smallholder farmers in northeastern Nigeria face the triple threat of food insecurity, climate volatility, and conflict. Northeastern Nigeria has some of the highest levels of food insecurity in Nigeria. Additionally, delayed, shorter, and more volatile rainy seasons have led to massive floods, depleted soil quality, and disrupted agricultural growing seasons which ultimately constrain agricultural productivity.

This Methodological Note seeks to support reflection on and provide examples of qualitative research methodologies to understand and assess women’s leadership, including leadership that supports collective action in the Commons.

Smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries have limited access to finance, due to the pau city of banks and other financial institutions in rural areas. As a result, banks and other formal financial institutions tend not to know much about farming as a business, and therefore they hesitate to extend credit to farmers. Such reluctance is often attributed to the elevated costs and risks linked with small, geographically dispersed farms, as well as the farmers' lack of collateral.

This field report highlights the progress, challenges, and achievements of the integration of climate-smart agricultural practices by the Kimatwa Women Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) in Makindu, Makueni County.

The In-situ Monitoring System in the Dry Corridor of Guatemala represents a testing ground for automated agricultural. Located in the region's challenging dry corridor, this innovative plot, supported by CGIAR, CUNORI University, and the CGIAR initiatives on Digital Innovation and AgriLac, is designed to enhance decision-making and efficiency for small-scale farmers. It achieves this through advanced in situ sensors and technologies that deliver precise data on climate and soil conditions.