International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) organized a state consultation workshop on 14 December 2023 on ‘Policy Coherence in Food, Land, and Water (FLW) Systems: A case study of Odisha’ at Bhubaneswar as a part of the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies Initiatives (NPS). The Food, Land and Water (FLW) project aims to identify key state-level policies in the food, land, and water systems that have a practical scope for improving coherence and hold most potential for creating an impact.

On 16 October, scientists, politicians and world leaders gathered from around the world to celebrate World Food Day. Organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the annual event urged global action to ‘start managing water wisely’ in the race for zero hunger. Stressing the connections between water and food production, this year’s World Food Day served as an important reminder that food and nutrition security can only be achieved with sufficient water of adequate quality, quantity, and reliability.

The International Conference on Eco-Health Nexus (ICEN 2023) aimed to promote interdisciplinary dialogues and solutions surrounding cascade ecology and human well-being. Cascade ecology refers to the study of ecological interactions in connected networks of tanks, streams and wetlands that exchange water, nutrients, and organisms.

The polders in coastal zones of Bangladesh are vulnerable to climate risks resulting in low agricultural productivity and low incomes for the communities dependent on agriculture-based livelihoods in these regions. Bangladesh adopted a participatory approach to water governance in the 1980s to improve the equitable and sustainable use of water resources. With men migrating away for better income opportunities, women are more involved in agricultural production and dependent on water resources.

The paper reviews the performance of the Sudanese agricultural sector over the last three decades (1990 through 2021) and examines the drivers of that performance. Key findings show that the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product was greater during the 1990–1999 period than during the other two decades; agricultural productivity as well was higher in that decade than in the subsequent two decades. The sector has remained a major source of employment and livelihood.

The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) presented the opportunity to apply an agri-food systems approach to Africa’s existing agricultural and food security efforts. The dialogues provided platforms for governments, businesses, communities and civil society to identify pathways towards resilient and inclusive agri-food systems and to reflect on the benefits of the approach and propose strategies for its mainstreaming.

Presentation on the implications of the challenges faced in the 21st century for sustainable rangeland restoration in dry areas. In addition to the limiting and successful factors that affected large-scale rehabilitation efforts. The presentation was performed by Mounir Louhaichi as a guest lecture on Exploring World Agriculture to students at the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University.

A study was carried out to profile potential mechanization hire service models in four counties in Kenya. The study profiled 6 models for mechanized hire services in agriculture that can be tapped depending on context of the farmers.

Although progress has been made in promoting gender equality in governments; gender and intersectional inequalities in national agrifood and climate policies are rarely meaningfully considered neither systematically addressed (Acosta et al.; 2019, 2020). The nexus between climate, agrifood and gender issues is relevant. Climate and gender policies often follow a top-down approach without integrating women’s and men’s knowledge, vulnerabilities and demands (Howland and Le Coq, 2022) and do not address structural causes of gender and intersectional inequalities (Huyer et al., 2020).

Water management in Egypt presents unique challenges. Being waterscarce, the country needs to use its limited freshwater reserves efficiently and effectively, particularly for irrigation, which accounts for over 70% of the total freshwater availability. Egypt has a network of irrigation canals and water-reuse drains that were built since the introduction of cotton cultivation in the colonial era to enable agricultural drainage and the reuse of water for irrigation. This facilitated expansion of the cultivated area with a view to improving food security and income.

Conflict has a deep and interrelated impact on health, food, and water security. With agriculture heavily dependent on freshwater withdrawals, disruptions to water supplies can heavily affect food production, which in turn affects health. In fragile and conflict-affected settings, poor governance and climate change exacerbate these challenges, leading to heightened competition for resources and the weaponization of vital assets like water.

Agriculture is one of the fundamental pillars of the 2022–2027 Bottom-up Economic Transformation Plan of the Government of Kenya for tackling complex domestic and global challenges. Kenya's food system is crucial for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Kenya has prioritized aspects of agriculture, food, and land use as critical sectors for reducing emissions towards achieving Vision 2030's transformation to a low-carbon, climate-resilient development pathway.