The Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) through the Improving Bean Productivity and Markets in Africa (IBPMA) Project funded by the Global Affairs Canada engaged on the project to reduce poverty amongst smallholder bean farmers, especially women, by reducing food insecurity, increasing incomes, and strengthening climate-smart agriculture (CSA). This mid-term evaluation report has brought up some key findings about the progress the project made over the four-year implementation period.

The objectives of the training were as follows:

Objectives:
To provide the progress and achievement of BARI-IRRI collaborative research and scaling activities from the SI-MFS initiative in 2023.

This paper explores the relationship between agriculture, dietary diversity, and market access in Nepal, testing the complex causal chains involved, and the nuanced connections between production diversity and dietary diversity among smallholder farmers. While diversifying farm production could enhance dietary diversity, the case of Nepal indicates a varied and context specific relationship. Market access emerges as a crucial factor, often exerting a more significant impact on smallholder farm households than production diversity.

This issue brief introduces a conceptual framework to describe the factors that inform farmers’ varietal uptake choices, by integrating choice behavior alongside more contextual and technical aspects of seed uptake. The framework was developed to support qualitative data analysis for generating behavioral intelligence about farmers’ decision-making about crop varieties, which may be of use to government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and companies that operate in the seed sector.

This policy brief provides empirical evidence on the profitability of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices and forage mixtures, implemented to mitigate soil erosion and land degradation in Northern and Central West Tunisia.

Agriculture is the main activity employing up to 70% of the working population in Benin. It contributes an average of 32.5% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 75% to export earnings, and 15% to government revenue (PSRSA, 2016). Benin's agriculture comprises a set of crops, among which vegetable crops constitute one of the strategic sectors and an important agricultural industry that employs thousands of people across urban, peri-urban, and rural areas (ACED, 2020). Vegetable production is crucial to the region's food security and poverty alleviation.

The Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) district agrifood systems assessments aim to provide a reliable, accessible, and integrated evidence base that links farm production, market access, dietary patterns, climate risk responses, and natural resource management with gender as a cross-cutting issue in rural areas of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. They are designed to be a district-level multi-year assessments.

Sri Lanka is blessed with ideal conditions for cultivating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. The country has around 80 varieties produced in different agroecological zones. There are several government and private organizations supporting vegetable farmers and farmers are organized into formally registered organizations. However, the average consumption of fruits and vegetables in Sri Lanka is around 150 g per day and per capita consumption is approximately 112 g per day, which is 50% lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations (SAARC 2017).

This training manual on “Improved management practices on rice-fish and dike cropping” offers guidance for organizing training sessions with pertinent farmers and extension workers. This publication provides an overview on Rice-Fish farming system including importance, advantage and disadvantage, type and technique of rice-fish culture and role of rice, fish, and vegetable in nutrition, livelihood, and economics. It also details the identification and preparation of land conducive to rice-fish and vegetable cultivation, in addition to providing guidance on rice cultivation management.

In Ethiopia, much like in several other African nations, the availability of food relies significantly on a large number of smallholder farmers. These farmers, confronted with various environmental obstacles, are experiencing substantial pressure to maintain and improve food production in order to ensure a stable food supply, particularly in light of the anticipated population growth across the continent.