A modern digital seed ‘catalog’ and seed ‘roadmap’ tool is now available for information about the quality and availability of seeds in one click. This innovative tool will ultimately enable farmers in several African countries to access seed varietal information quickly and help them plan seed production over a long period.

Three new improved sorghum varieties have been released in Malawi after extensive trials. Pilira 3, Pilira 4 and Pilira 5 have been released by the Agricultural Technology Clearing Committee (ATTC), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food...

A renewed focus on innovation and establishing new partnerships was high on the agenda at the recent joint meeting of the Research Management Committee (RMC) and the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC) of the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Drylands...

Gender Conversations from East Africa with Esther Njuguna-Mungai, Nairobi, Kenya. As a gender researcher working in dryland agricultural research, one of the outcomes we strive for is equity in improvement of farm level outcomes for men and women farmers. This is...

Creating complementarities and synergies and harmonizing approaches were the key takeaways from the meeting of the GLDC’s Flagship Program 3 on Integrated farm and household management held in Nairobi, Kenya on 1-2 October. Sixteen scientists from IITA, SLU,...

A study in Northern Ghana revealed that lack of access to finance often hinders productivity in women-run farms. To correct this, several Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) have been formed in the region,

Researchers in Malawi are optimistic of proposing the release of three new high-yielding and stress-resistant chickpea varieties next year. The aim is to cater to the needs of farmers in the southeastern districts who are increasingly growing chickpea for its high...

Nigeria’s National Committee on Variety Naming, Registration and Release on 26 July 2018, approved the registration and release of two medium-maturing sorghum varieties, SAMSORG 47 as ZAUNA-INUWA, SAMSORG 48 as KAURA BORNU, and an early medium-maturing variety,...

A key goal of Feed the Future is to increase youth empowerment and livelihoods, because supporting and empowering youth can help to sustainably reduce global hunger, malnutrition and poverty. With one third of the total population — about 2.3 billion people —between...

By Agathe Diama, Head-Regional Information – WCA, West & Central Africa Program It started with just three women farmers who were part of a pilot from Pagou village, Burkina Faso, who were trained on improved groundnut seed production in 2015. The three women...

A multi-pronged approach including quality seed availability and increased profitability for farmers can help India bridge the demand-supply gap in pulses, says a team of scientists. The 12-point recommendations made in the paper, ‘Leveraging Policies for Self...

The report — Mechanized: Transforming Africa’s Agriculture Value Chains — summarizes the findings of a systematic analysis of what countries at the forefront of progress in mechanization have done right. It analyzes which policy decisions were taken and which...

The use of systems modeling tools and decision support systems can be of great advantage to farmers by helping them plan their farming activities based on weather predictions.

Mrs Hadja Talatu Idrissa of Bunkure, near Kano, Nigeria, is the leader of a 25-women group in groundnut production and processing.

This post was co-authored with Esther Ngumbi. Fueled by climate change and global trade, the threat from invasive pests to countries in which the pests were not present or previously reported will continue to increase, with many sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries...

The CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals invites applications from new Masters graduates from Eastern and Southern Africa to pursue a 6-month Gender Internship Program.

While most crop and animal breeders realize the importance of considering gender differences in breeding programs, they lack actionable evidence and practical tools to help make their programs more gender-responsive. The CGIAR Gender and Breeding Initiative (GBI)...

Feed the Future (FTF) recently underwent a shift to its second phase of implementation, guided by the Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) developed following the Global Food Security Act of 2016. With the change has come a revised common results framework and a host...

This post was written by Wei Zhang. Insect pests are a major cause of crop yield losses around the world and an important cause of food insecurity in developing countries. The development of effective policies to support more sustainable pest management requires a...

For many years, we’ve been trying to understand the implications of shrinking farm sizes for millions of rural African households. Driven by population growth and growing land scarcity, most African farm households are witnessing the gradual sub-division of their...

The CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research is hosting the webinar ‘GENNOVATE, a qualitative comparative study on gender norms and agency in agricultural and environmental innovation

Farmers, consumers, communities and countries face several types of shocks that can negatively affect their wellbeing and growth trajectories. These include stresses caused by weather fluctuations, natural resources depletion, pest and disease outbreaks, disasters,...

6 June 2018, Rome -  The three United Nations agencies tasked with ending hunger and boosting rural development have committed to strengthening their collaboration to help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, with a special focus on achieving Goal 2...

This piece was co-authored by Elizabeth Mkandawire and Sheryl L Hendriks of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Policy-makers tend to misunderstand the term gender. Drawing from their personal frames of reference, policymakers often incorrectly understand gender...

International conference pushes for stronger multidisciplinary research and cross-country collaborations Recommendations to improve farmers’ incomes through sustainable production and marketing of legumes, marked the 7th International Food Legume Research Conference...

The challenges of producing more food and fibre for a growing population, adopting sustainable production methods, and adapting to an ever changing climate call for innovative and new solutions that agricultural research can offer.

Breeding high nutritional varieties of chickpea and pigeonpea just got easier. With new technology, genomic processes that could have taken years, have been completed in just a few months.

In a room filled with men, the voice of the lone woman at the head table commanded respect. Dr. Shivali Sharma captivated the room as she excitedly presented evaluation results and shared her passion for pigeonpea pre-breeding.

A project that aims to strengthen research in crop-livestock systems, to substantially change lives and livelihood of farmers in Western Africa, was launched earlier this month.