In this brief, we present AICCRA Zambia's scaling vision. Our scaling strategy employs a number of interconnected and mutually reinforcing channels. These include public and private sector scaling partnerships, individual and collective investments, financing mechanism for SMEs, institutional capacity building and multistakeholder dialogues (Figure 2). AICCRA works with Zambian partners to scale actionable climate smart agriculture (CSA) and climate information services (CIS) innovation bundles that contribute to smallholder farmers’ water and food security and build resilience.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a widely grown vegetatively propagated food crop in the Benin Republic. The taro leaf blight (TLB) epidemic in 2009, caused by Phytophthora colocasiae, has destroyed taro production and wiped out many taro landraces in West Africa. A survey was conducted in the southern region of Benin to assess the status of taro and TLB, ethnobotany, farmers' perceptions of taro, and identify production constraints.

Societal Impact Statement:

This study uses maize as the test crop. Maize is the key focus of most studies on crop response to micronutrients in SSA with a limited number of studies on wheat, rice, cowpea, sorghum, and soybean responses. Maize, constituting 45% of the cereal production in SSA in 2014, is the staple food crop (accounting for over 40% of the calories consumed in some countries such as Malawi and Zambia (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data)) and the main component of food aid interventions in SSA (Leonardo et al. 2015).

In collaboration with AICCRA, EMI held a workshop to present the assessment of the Belg 2023 climate and the outlook of the upcoming Kiremt 2023. It was held within the NFCS-E framework, mainstreaming climate into key socio-economic sectors for resilience and sustainable development. It was convened on May 16, 2022, at Haile Resort, Adama, Ethiopia, and brought together 300 government officials of WoWE, EDRMC, EMI, representatives from socio-economic sectors, international partners, civic societies, and media.

Manipulation of the rhizosphere can improve soil health; and foster sustainable management of pests and diseases. Biological inputs such as spent substrates from edible mushrooms (e.g., Pleurotus ostreatus) gardens offer sustainable alternatives on

A working group of stakeholders has been created to aid in shaping results and result dissemination for effecting policy change in Zambia. A first meeting was held in Lusaka on March 7th to present iFEED to the working group and begin discussions about how to use results to inform policy development. Further meetings took place in Q2 2023 between Leeds WP3 and the working group to finalise these results and how they will be used to inform policy change.

This PowerPoint Presentation was provided to the East Africa Farmers Federation Workshop May 30-31, 2023. The objectives of the presentation are two fold - to look backwards and consider the next steps on agriculture in the climate negotiations and to enhance farmer engagement in climate change.