The training targeted youth and women sheep fattening groups, aiming to enhance their knowledge and skills in optimizing feed management practices. ICARDA partnered with the National Agricultural Research Centers of Areka, Bonga, and Debre Berhan to deliver the training sessions. The objective of the trainings was to equip participants with the necessary expertise to formulate balanced sheep diets and efficiently process feed, thereby improving sheep productivity and promoting sustainable livestock feeding practices.

The world population of 8 billion people creates alarm for more food demand, hence the need to increase productivity per available resources. It is pointed out that 50% of Africa’s population are youth below 25 years, meanwhile, 66.1% of total population (61million) of Tanzania youths aged between 15-24 years are participating in the national labour force. Therefore, youth involvement in the dairy value chain is inevitable.

Tackling the climate crisis means equipping the youth with the knowledge and skills they need to manage climate risk. Universities across Africa have an enormous role to play towards this end. By equipping the next generation of researchers, policymakers, and leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to build resilient societies, education systems represent an important avenue for sustained capacity building beyond project life cycles.

Agriculture and livestock represent the main incomegenerating activity for women and youth in the rural areas of Mali. It is expected that climate change will lead to a reduction in food production due to changes in rainfall patterns and temperature in Africa (Awojobi and Tetteh, 2017), and Mali is facing the same challenges. To cope with such climateinduced stress, women and youth need information and access to climate-smart technologies.

This paper identifies the challenges, aspirations, and entry points for greater participation and empowerment of youth and women in the fast-growing aquaculture value chain in Ghana. Data was collected from three survey rounds of 400 fish farmers; 32 key informants’ interviews; and 5 FGDs with female-only, femaleyouth-only, and male-youth-only groups. Four study highlights are as follows. First, the study shows that respondents all indicated they wanted to continue or start aquaculture and expand to other stages of the value chain (hatchery, feed formulation, processing).

Inclusive value-chain development aims to empower small-scale farmers and strengthen the agriculture sector. This study explores the impact of livelihood assets, access strategies, and enabling and discouraging factors on women’s and youth’s inclusion in surplus agricultural production and off-farm activities in Ethiopia and Mali. It is based on an ecologically sustainable agricultural water management project that aims to make markets work for the poor through inclusive value-chain development in Ziway-Shalla Subbasin of Ethiopia and Wegnia and Sourou of Mali.

This report presents the findings of continental level stakeholder consultations conducted by the Policy theme of AICCRA during the month of September 2023. We undertook these consultations to gather inputs from stakeholders and feed them into the design process of the AICCRA Additional Financing (AF). Conversations with stakeholders focused on understanding the challenges faced, the opportunities presented and the priorities for AICCRA’s AF from various stakeholder perspectives.

This report provides a comprehensive statistical overview of agricultural household data collected by IFPRI from a smallholder commercialization survey in late 2022. Sampled to be representative to the provincial level, ten households were surveyed in 202 villages for a total of 2,020 households interviewed. The survey covers a wide range of topics including household demographics, agricultural farm holdings, input use, crop choice, levels of commercialization and other non-farm sources of income.

Agriculture has played a crucial role in supporting smallholder livelihoods in Bangladesh. Despite being actively involved in various stages of production, including seed sowing, harvesting, and postharvesting, women's contributions are often undervalued. They are often regarded as a cheap labor force and are not given meaningful roles in the supply and value chains. One of the primary challenges they face is the lack of access to and ownership of land, which results in limited and unequal access to resources such as credit, services, markets, and information on modern technologies.

On May 12 in Abuja, Nigeria, two CGIAR initiatives – Fragility, Conflict, and Migration (FCM) and National Policies and Strategies (NPS) – brought together policymakers, researchers, and representatives from the private sector and civil society to discuss how to advance food systems resilience amid crises while empowering women and youth, in the context of Nigeria. The workshop featured presentations from six other CGIAR research initiatives working in Nigeria and fostered lively discussions.

In this document we present a general characterization of the food systems in the department of Caquetá, Colombia, based on a review of the literature, with a particular emphasis on livestock and cocoa.