Chaya is a highly nutritious perennial leafy vegetable native to Mesoamerica. This drought-resistant crop has low production and consumption levels in Guatemala, but has the potential to help agriculture and food systems be more nutritious and resilient. This study analyzed the value chain of chaya in Guatemala, and identified bottlenecks and opportunities for its use-enhancement. This research, the first of its kind applied to this crop in Guatemala, combined Rapid Market Appraisal tools.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second largest pulse crop grown worldwide and ascochyta blight caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr. is the most devastating disease of the crop in all chickpea growing areas across the continents. The pathogen A. rabiei is highly variable. The resistant sources available are not sufficient and new sources needs to be identified from time to time as resistance breakdown in existing chickpea varieties is very frequent due to fast evolution of new pathotypes of the pathogen.

Triadic comparison of technology options (tricot) is a research methodology that helps farmers to identify the most suitable technologies for the local conditions of their farm. Tricot (read: ‘try-cot’) engages farmers as ‘farmer researchers’ in the testing or validation of new crop varieties and other promising technologies. Tricot is supported by the ClimMob digital platform (https://climmob.net). This guide provides an introduction to tricot and each of the steps in the experimental cycle.

The cassava system in Nigeria is developing, with increasing attention to its potential positive outcomes. However, credit access is a major problem in expanding productive activities of the different actors across the value chains of cassava products. This study investigates the extent of access to credit by cassava actors with respect to the different financial institutions in the country using data obtained from a sample of 168 actors, including producers, processors, marketers, fabricators and end users.

The Caribbean Farmers Network Inc. (CaFAN) is a registered not-for-profit organisation representing about 500,000 small-scale farmers in 15 Caribbean countries. The organisation’s secretariat is located in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. CaFAN conducted this joint impact study, commissioned by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), to examine in-depth the impact of CTA funding and programme support to CaFAN. The findings are to contribute to learning for development impact within CTA and its ACP partner organisations and networks.

Drawing insight from work in Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya and Niger to scale land restoration across the drylands in Africa, the brief defines and describes the Nested Communities of Practice (CoPs) approach and how this project implemented these with key stakeholders (farmers, community facilitators, NGOs, government and researchers) to foster co-learning and sharing with evidence in East Africa and the Sahel.

Domestication of indigenous Son tra or H’mong apple fruits has resulted in higher yields of superior, more marketable fruits while helping in soil conservation efforts in the North-West region of Vietnam. FTA supported partnerships, helped develop and scale adoption of superior son tra genotypes by smallholder farmers and government-led land restoration initiatives.

This brief assesses the current state of migration-related policies in Ethiopia, and provides some early recommendations and policy pointers based on work carried out under the AGRUMIG project. In Ethiopia, the scale of migration and its impacts on rural and urban transformations are underestimated and probably increasing. There is a lack of a coherent national migration policy in the country, which is a potential development hindrance.

The coastal region of Bangladesh is prone to natural disasters and these events are expected to worsen as a result of climate change. Combined with anthropogenic factors, these events challenge livelihood opportunities, especially crop production. Waterlogging, tidal activity and the lack of proper drainage facilities are major constraints to agricultural production in these areas.