Actinorhizal symbiosis naturally harbours beneficial categories of diverse plant growth promoting microorganisms (PGPMs), including the Frankia species. The beneficial microorganisms can be used as efficient, non-chemical and sustainable alternatives for adopting effective soil restoration programmes and revegetation schedules in chemical and industrial-contaminated sites, including treating degraded lands contaminated with toxic chemicals and pesticides.

The evidence base for the effectiveness of gender-transformative approaches (GTAs) in agriculture and food system interventions is small and weak, and many studies do not focus on specifically evaluating these approaches and methods.
While the very limited quantitative evidence suggests that interventions that integrate GTAs have weak or no effects on many outcomes for women’s empowerment outcomes (including gender norms), qualitative evidence shows that, in some instances, shifts in gender roles could eventually lead to change in gender norms.

The genetic gain of biomass cover and height in the interspecific Urochloa pipeline was estimated by establishing an ERA trial in two locations in Colombia. Each trial included 150 genotypes from seven cycles of selection in different stages, along with genebank accessions and cultivars. The assessed traits were visual biomass, biomass cover calculated from drone images and height. For the genetic gain estimation, we used a two-stage approach considering only the hybrids in the stage 4, selected after multi location trials in Latin America by the Group Papalotla.

In 2022, a new cohort of U. humidicola hybrids was obtained and named Bh22. This cohort was composed of 5,024 hybrids and corresponded to the 3rd cycle of recurrent selection. Out of 5,024 individuals tested, 1,887 were identified as apomicts through the molecular marker p779/p780 (Worthington, 2016). In 2023, with the objective to select i) a subset of genotypes based on their performance and ii) mothers based on hybrid performance, a multi-environment trial was implemented.

This roadmap presents a series of stages and activities that are recommended to access to financing sources that encourage the adoption of practices associated with Zero Deforestation livestock farming models. The first part of the roadmap consists of categorization of the level of deforestation risk in the supply chain based on the self-analysis of the direct and indirect supply networks.

Cattle ranching is a productive activity that generates high amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG) such as methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2), but can also provide effective alternatives to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Within the livestock sector, silvopastoral systems (SPS) have the capacity to reduce GHG emissions, increase carbon stocks, adapt to climate change, improve animal welfare and increase production of milk, beef and timber under different conditions.

The relationship between climate change and conflict is a complex one, and Bangladesh is often cited as an example of a country where climate change is leading to conflict. However, the situation on Hatiya Island, a densely populated sandbar in southeastern Bangladesh, suggests that the relationship between climate change and conflict is more nuanced than is often portrayed.

In India, farmer producer organizations (FPOs) promote collective action among small and marginalized farmers, especially women. By facilitating resource pooling and coordination of production activities, improving market access, and providing training and extension, FPOs can contribute to higher agricultural incomes for smallholder farmers. Women’s FPOs also help formalize women’s roles in agriculture, offer them remunerative employment, and enhance their engagement across the value chain.

The slow, limited, and uneven progress on women’s empowerment and gender equality over the last decade clearly shows that rural transformation, with its focus on efficiency and productivity, is leaving women behind in addition to having negative impacts on the environment and nutrition. New inclusive models of rural transformation are called for. The study argues that treating gender equality and women’s empowerment as key in the process of rural transformation will lead to a more inclusive and resilient transformation of rural spaces.

Gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in many agri-food systems (AFS), limiting the potential of women—especially those from agriculture-dependent communities—to be empowered and to build social and economic resilience to climate change challenges. The Harnessing Gender and Social Equality for Resilience in Agri-food Systems (HER+) initiative will generate learning and evidence on where and how to intervene at a deeper level to disrupt the foundations of inequality in AFS. This effort requires high-quality data.